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Clear, Pale, Gravy-soup or Stock

A clear, pale soup made by simmering ham, veal, and beef with vegetables and herbs for several hours.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 14 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 ↓

Clear, Pale, Gravy-soup or Stock

Ingredients

Directions

Brown the meat

  1. In a deep stewpan or soup pot, melt butter and add the ham, veal, and beef.

  2. Cook over medium heat until the meat is amber-colored, stirring frequently to prevent sticking.

  3. Once browned, add the bones and gradually pour in the boiling water.

Skim and simmer

  1. Skim off any scum that rises and add cold water intermittently to bring it to the surface.

  2. When no more scum appears, add salt, onions, carrots, turnips, celery, herbs, cloves, white pepper, and mace.

  3. Let the soup simmer gently for 5.5 to 6.5 hours.

Strain and serve

  1. Strain the soup through a fine cloth in a sieve.

  2. Once cooled, remove any fat from the surface.

  3. Reheat the desired amount in a clean pan, adding salt and a few drops of chili or cayenne vinegar if needed.

  4. Serve with fried bread sippets or cooked rice, macaroni, vermicelli, or noodles.

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 + 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 + thymetop 3% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together4,563 recipes

    Shared aroma: cuminaldehyde (Spicy, cumin).

  5. Celery + thymetop 3% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together3,193 recipes

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

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

What each ingredient does

Veal
Releases gelatin and body into the stock during long simmering, giving a fuller mouthfeel.
Lean beef
Adds deep meaty flavor to the stock as it simmers and browns.
Ham
Contributes savory, salty depth to the broth as it cooks.
Onions
Add sweetness and aromatic flavor as they soften in the stock.

The step that matters

Skimming the scum. Scum is coagulated protein and impurities that rise as the stock heats. Removing it as it forms keeps the stock clear and free of off flavors; adding cold water helps bring the scum to the surface.

Swap the thyme

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

  1. Parsleyfits better
  2. Marjoramfits about as well
  3. Thymethe original
  4. Tarragonfits about as well

Fit is the average pairing score against ham, veal, beef, onion, carrot, turnip, 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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