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Clear Soup

A clear soup made with beef, stock, carrot, turnip, and leek.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 5 ingredients
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Clear Soup

Why it works: Turnip and leek match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 1,046 recipes. Both carry coumarin, which smells sweet, hay. The science ↓

Clear Soup

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Skim the stock to remove fat.

  2. Cut the lean beef into very small pieces. Discard fat and sinew from the beef.

  3. Clean the carrot. Scrape the carrot to a pulp.

  4. Dice the turnip.

  5. Cut the leek into small pieces.

Make the soup

  1. In a stewpan, combine the cold stock, beef, and vegetables.

  2. Stir continuously until the mixture is heated.

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. Turnip + leektop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together1,046 recipes

    Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).

  2. Carrot + turniptop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together8,002 recipes

    Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).

  3. Carrot + leektop 3% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together1,310 recipes

    Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).

  4. Beef + carrottop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together6,606 recipes

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

  5. Beef + leektop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together659 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl butyrate (apple, fruity).

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

What each ingredient does

Lean beef
Provides the main body and savoury flavour of the soup.
Stock
Forms the liquid base that carries the flavour of the soup.
Carrot
Adds sweetness and colour, and thickens slightly when scraped to a pulp.
Turnip
Adds mild sweetness and body as it softens in the broth.
Leek
Contributes a gentle onion-like aroma and flavour.

The step that matters

Stir continuously until the mixture is heated.. Constant stirring while the cold stock warms keeps the beef and pulped vegetables from settling and sticking to the base of the pan, which would scorch them and cloud the soup.

Swap the carrot

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (beef, turnip, leek):

  1. Parsnipfits better
  2. Chivefits better
  3. Shallotfits better
  4. Carrotthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against beef, turnip, leek. 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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