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Amber Soup

A clear broth made from soup bone, chicken, ham, vegetables, and caramel, thickened with pearl tapioca and egg whites.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 16 ingredients
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Why it works: Carrot and parsnip match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 1,097 recipes. Both carry 2-isobutyl-3-methoxypyrazine, which smells green bell pepper, earthy. The science ↓

Amber Soup

Ingredients

Directions

Make the broth

  1. Combine soup bone, chicken, ham, and cold water in a large pot.

  2. Bring to a boil.

  3. Simmer for 5 hours.

  4. In the last hour, add soup vegetables, cloves, and season with pepper and salt.

  5. Strain the broth into an earthen bowl and let it sit overnight.

Clarify and finish

  1. The next day, remove the layer of fat from the top and pour off the clear liquid, avoiding any sediment.

  2. Mix the clear broth with the beaten egg whites and shells. Boil quickly for 30 seconds.

  3. Strain through a jelly bag.

  4. Add enough caramel to color the soup. Stir in the pearl tapioca.

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 + parsniptop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together1,097 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-isobutyl-3-methoxypyrazine (green bell pepper, earthy).

  2. Parsley + carrottop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together8,053 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2,4-decadienal (seaweed).

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

    Shared aroma: myristicin (spice, warm).

  4. Parsley + celerytop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together6,810 recipes

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

  5. Parsley + parsniptop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together484 recipes

    Shared aroma: myristicin (spice, warm).

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

What each ingredient does

Egg whites and shells
Bind to impurities as they cook, so the broth clears when strained.
Pearl tapioca
Thickens the soup slightly as it cooks and gives it a light body.
Soup bone
Releases gelatin and flavor during long simmering, giving the broth body.
Chicken
Adds meaty flavor and savory depth to the long-simmered broth.

The step that matters

Boil quickly for 30 seconds after adding the egg whites. The egg whites must be brought to a brief boil so they coagulate and trap cloudy particles; stirring them in too gently or boiling too long can leave the broth cloudy or make it taste off.

Swap the clove

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (chicken, ham, onion, parsley, carrot, parsnip, celery):

  1. Thymefits better
  2. Marjoramfits better
  3. Tarragonfits better
  4. Clovethe original

Fit is the average pairing score against chicken, ham, onion, parsley, carrot, parsnip, 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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