Skip to main content
Main

Clear Soup

A clear beef broth made by simmering beef, carrots, turnips, celery, herbs, cloves, mace, peppercorns, and salt for six hours.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 11 ingredients
Jump to recipe ↓
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 the beef

  1. Cut the beef into pieces and fry in a little butter until browned.

Simmer

  1. Place the beef in a large pot with 4 quarts of cold water and bring to a simmer, skimming off any scum.

  2. Gradually add the carrots, turnips, celery, herbs, cloves, mace, peppercorns, and salt.

  3. Simmer gently for 6 hours, then strain through a fine sieve.

Finish

  1. Once cooled, skim off all fat with a clean cloth for a clear soup.

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

    Shared aroma: cuminaldehyde (Spicy, cumin).

  5. Turnip + clovetop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together2,233 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

Gravy beef
Provides the main meaty flavour and gelatin that gives the broth body.
Carrots
Add gentle sweetness and aromatic depth to the broth.
Turnips
Contribute mild sweetness and earthy flavour to the broth.
Celery
Adds savoury, herbal aroma that rounds out the broth.

The step that matters

Skimming off scum while bringing to a simmer. Impurities that rise to the surface cloud the liquid if left in. Removing them early, and keeping the broth at a gentle simmer rather than a rolling boil, helps keep it clear.

Swap the mace

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

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

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

You might also like

Roast BeefRoast Beef211 recipesBeef LoafBeef Loaf175 recipesCarrot SoupCarrot Soup134 recipesCream of Celery SoupCream of Celery Soup113 recipes