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Clear Soup

A clear broth made from bones, vegetables, and seasonings, finished with beaten egg whites and optional grated cheese.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 11 ingredients
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Clear Soup

Why it works: Carrot and celery match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 10,173 recipes. Both carry myristicin, which smells spice, warm. The science ↓

Clear Soup

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Place the bones, broken into small pieces, into a pan with the water and remove any scum.

  2. Peel the turnip, scrape the carrot, and peel the onion. Cut them into slices and add to the pan.

  3. Add the celery seed, sugar, pepper, and salt to taste.

Simmer and clarify

  1. Boil for two hours, or until the liquid is reduced to two quarts.

  2. Strain the liquid into a clean pan over heat.

  3. Beat the egg whites and stir them into the liquid.

  4. Allow to boil gently for twenty minutes.

  5. Remove from heat and let the liquid settle until the scum cracks and the liquid is clear.

Finish and serve

  1. Strain through a clean cloth, reheat, and slightly color before serving.

  2. Add grated cheese before serving if desired.

Recipe from a historical cookbook (Internet Archive).

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.

Photo for illustrative purposes only · Contact us to use it

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.

  1. Carrot + celerytop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together10,173 recipes

    Shared aroma: myristicin (spice, warm).

  2. Carrot + turniptop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together8,002 recipes

    Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).

  3. Turnip + celerytop 2% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together4,418 recipes

    Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).

  4. Celery + peppertop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together16,012 recipes

    Shared aroma: 4'-methylacetophenone (bitter almond).

  5. Turnip + oniontop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together7,585 recipes

    Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).

Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs

What each ingredient does

Egg whites
Coagulate as they heat, trapping suspended particles so the broth clears.
Bones
Release gelatin and flavor into the water, giving the broth body and richness.
Carrot
Adds sweetness and aroma to the broth as it simmers.
Turnip
Contributes mild sweetness and aroma to the broth as it simmers.

The step that matters

Allow to boil gently for twenty minutes. Boiling too hard can break up the egg white raft and cloud the broth again. A gentle simmer lets the raft set and collect impurities so the liquid stays clear.

Swap the onion

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (carrot, turnip, celery, sugar, pepper, egg, cheese):

  1. Parsnipfits better
  2. Mustardfits better
  3. Capsicumfits better
  4. Onionthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against carrot, turnip, celery, sugar, pepper, egg, cheese. Candidates are from the same food group and used in at least 100 recipes.

“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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