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Clear, Pale, Gravy-soup or Stock

A clear, pale soup made from ham, veal, beef, and vegetables, simmered for hours and served with fried bread or pasta.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 15 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

Prepare

  1. Rub a deep stewpan or soup pot with butter.

  2. Add the ham, veal, and beef, and cook over medium heat until browned.

  3. Add the bones and pour in the boiling water gradually.

Make the stock

  1. Skim off the scum as it rises, adding a pint of cold water to help.

  2. Once the scum stops appearing, add salt, onions, carrots, turnips, celery, herbs, cloves, white pepper, and mace.

  3. Simmer gently for 5 to 6 hours.

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

  5. Once cooled, remove the fat from the top.

Serve

  1. Reheat the desired amount, adding salt and vinegar or sauce to taste.

  2. Serve with fried bread slices or cooked pasta.

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
Adds gelatin and body, giving the stock a rich, full mouthfeel as it simmers.
Beef
Contributes deep, savoury meat flavour and body to the finished stock.
Ham
Lends a cured, savoury depth of flavour to the stock.
Onions
Provide sweetness and aromatic flavour as they soften in the long simmer.
Carrots
Add gentle sweetness and colour to the clear broth.
Celery
Adds fresh, herbal aroma and savoury background flavour.

The step that matters

Skimming the scum. Scum is coagulated protein and impurities that rise as the liquid heats. Removing it as it forms keeps the stock clear and free of bitter, muddy flavour. Adding cold water helps the impurities rise and separate.

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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