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Gravy Soup, Clear

A clear soup made with ham, beef, veal, bones, onions, turnips, carrots, celery, cloves, mace, and water.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 12 ingredients
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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 ↓

Gravy Soup, Clear

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Place the ham slices at the bottom of a large stewpan or stock pot.

  2. Add the lean beef and veal.

  3. Break the bones and add them to the pot.

  4. Add the onions, turnips, carrots, celery, cloves, and mace.

  5. Cover the pot.

  6. Set it over medium heat.

Brown and simmer

  1. When the meat begins to stick, turn it until a nice brown glaze forms.

  2. Cover the meat with hot water.

  3. Bring to a boil.

  4. Add ½ pint of cold water. Remove any scum.

  5. Add another ½ pint of cold water. Skim again.

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.

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. Turnip + carrottop 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. Onion + turniptop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together7,585 recipes

    Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).

  5. Onion + carrottop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together21,601 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).

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

What each ingredient does

Lean beef
Provides rich meaty flavor and gelatin as it cooks down into the broth.
Veal
Adds gelatin and a delicate body to the stock.
Bones
Release gelatin and minerals that give the soup body and depth.
Onions
Add sweetness and savory aroma as they cook and brown.
Carrots
Contribute natural sweetness and aromatic depth to the broth.

The step that matters

Turning the meat until a brown glaze forms. Browning the meat through the Maillard reaction builds deep roasted flavor. Stirring too early or letting it burn leaves bitter notes that carry into the clear broth.

Swap the turnip

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (ham, beef, veal, meat, onion, carrot, celery):

  1. Leekfits about as well
  2. Potatofits about as well
  3. Turnipthe original
  4. Tomatofits about as well

Fit is the average pairing score against ham, beef, veal, meat, onion, carrot, celery. 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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