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Consomme

A clear veal and beef stock made with butter, vegetables, herbs, spices, and ham, simmered for hours and strained.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 18 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 ↓

Consomme

Ingredients

Directions

Brown the meat

  1. Melt half of the butter over medium heat in a soup pot.

  2. Cut the meat into very small pieces.

  3. Add the meat to the pot.

  4. Stir until the meat begins to brown.

  5. Add 1 quart of water.

  6. Cook until a thick glaze forms on the bottom of the pot, about 1 hour.

Simmer the stock

  1. Add the remaining water.

  2. Bring to a boil.

  3. Skim off any foam.

  4. Reduce heat and let it simmer for 6 hours.

Add vegetables and finish

  1. Fry the finely chopped vegetables in the remaining butter.

  2. Cook for 30 minutes, being careful not to burn them.

  3. Add the fried vegetables, herbs, and spices to the soup pot.

  4. Cook for 1 hour.

  5. Season with salt to taste.

  6. Strain the stock.

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. Carrot + clovetop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together5,873 recipes

    Shared aroma: cuminaldehyde (Spicy, cumin).

  3. Carrot + oniontop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together21,601 recipes

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

  4. Celery + clovetop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together4,668 recipes

    Shared aroma: gamma-decalactone (peach, creamy).

  5. Clove + macetop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together8,400 recipes

    Shared aroma: methyleugenol (clove, spice).

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

What each ingredient does

Beef
Browned meat and bones build the deep, savory flavor of the stock.
Veal shin
Collagen-rich meat and bones release gelatin, giving the consommé body.
Butter
Fat for browning the meat and frying the vegetables, adding richness and aroma.
Onions
Fried until browned, they add sweetness and deep color to the stock.
Celery
Fried with the aromatics, it adds savory, vegetal flavor to the stock.

The step that matters

Browning the meat to a thick glaze. Browning caramelizes the meat's proteins and sugars, building deep flavor and color; burning gives bitter notes that carry into the clear stock.

Swap the mace

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

  1. Parsleyfits better
  2. Thymefits better
  3. Marjoramfits better
  4. Macethe original

Fit is the average pairing score against veal, beef, butter, carrot, onion, celery, clove. 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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