Why it works: Beef and sherry work together. They rank in the top 21% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 871 recipes. Both carry ethyl octanoate, which smells fruity, wine. The science ↓
Consomme
Ingredients
Directions
Prepare
Remove all fat from the stock.
Finely scrape the beef and soak it in 2 tablespoons of cold water.
Prepare a clean cloth tied to the legs of an upside-down chair.
Pour boiling water through the cloth into a basin to clean it.
Make the consommé
In a stew pan, combine the stock, beef, and egg whites and shells.
Whisk over heat until the stock begins to simmer.
Stop whisking and bring to a boil.
Remove from heat and cover with a lid.
Strain and serve
Place a clean basin underneath and pour the soup through the cloth.
Strain the soup slowly twice for clarity, then add sherry and serve immediately.
Transcribed from a scanned cookbook and modernised for today's kitchens. Where the book gave no heat or time, or said "a moderate oven", the temperatures and times here may be modern equivalents rather than the book's own figures.
Explore the science
The flavor team
The pairs that carry this dish. Each one is judged two ways: how much their aromas overlap, and how often cooks already put them together.
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Beef + sherrytop 21% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together871 recipes
Shared aroma: ethyl octanoate (fruity, wine).
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Egg + sherrytop 29% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together3,324 recipes
Shared aroma: 1-octen-3-ol (mushroom, earthy).
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Egg + beeftop 31% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together8,305 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).
Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs
What each ingredient does
- Eggs
- Whites and shells collect impurities as they heat, clarifying the stock into a clear soup.
- Gravy beef
- Finely scraped beef adds meaty flavor and helps trap particles that cloud the broth.
- Sherry
- Added at the end, it contributes aroma and a mellow, slightly sweet flavor.
The step that matters
Stop whisking and bring to a boil. Once the stock begins to simmer, stirring or whisking breaks up the egg and beef raft, which then mixes back into the liquid and clouds it. Stopping at this point lets the raft form and trap impurities, which is what keeps the consommé clear.
“What each ingredient does” and “The step that matters” were written by Claude from this recipe’s own method and reviewed in samples by CompKitchen.
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