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Good Consomme

A clear beef consommé flavored with onion, allspice, lime peel, and finished with port wine, mushroom ketchup, and lime juice.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 12 ingredients
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Why it works: Clove and allspice match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 7,874 recipes. Both carry estragole, which smells anise, licorice. The science ↓

Good Consomme

Ingredients

Directions

Make the stock

  1. In a pot, combine meat trimmings, water, onion, allspice, black pepper, and lime peel.

  2. Skim carefully while boiling.

  3. Let it simmer for at least 1 hour.

  4. Strain the liquid.

  5. Keep the meat warm, discarding the fat.

Thicken and finish

  1. Melt butter in a stewpan.

  2. Stir in enough arrowroot or flour to make a thick paste.

  3. Gradually add the strained liquid.

  4. Bring to a boil.

  5. Stir in port wine, mushroom ketchup, and lime juice.

  6. Simmer for 10 minutes.

  7. Strain again.

Serve

  1. Pour over the meat, garnishing with fried bread snippets.

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. Clove + allspicetop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together7,874 recipes

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

  2. Lime + arrowroottop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together30 recipes

    Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).

  3. Pepper + limetop 2% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together3,491 recipes

    Shared aroma: beta-phellandrene (minty, terpene).

  4. Allspice + limetop 4% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together147 recipes

    Shared aroma: beta-phellandrene (minty, terpene).

  5. Clove + peppertop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together17,451 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl octanoate (fruity, wine).

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

What each ingredient does

Meat trimmings
Release savoury meat flavour and gelatin into the stock, giving body and depth to the consommé.
Arrowroot or flour
Thickens the liquid into a light, glossy body when cooked with the butter.
Port wine or claret
Adds depth, acidity and a fruity richness to the finished consommé.
Mushroom ketchup
Adds concentrated savoury, umami flavour that deepens the broth.
Butter
Fat that forms the roux base with the thickener, adding richness and smooth texture.

The step that matters

Skimming while boiling. Skimming removes coagulated proteins and fat that would cloud the stock. Careful skimming keeps the consommé clear and clean-tasting.

Swap the onion

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (meat, clove, allspice, pepper, lime, butter, arrowroot):

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

Fit is the average pairing score against meat, clove, allspice, pepper, lime, butter, arrowroot. 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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