Name: Consomme Colbert
Ingredients: 5 quarts of beef stock; 1 cup of white wine; 1 cup of diced vegetables (carrots, celery, onions); Salt to taste; Pepper to taste; Chopped parsley for garnish

Why it works: Carrot and parsley match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 8,053 recipes. Both carry 2,4-decadienal, which smells seaweed. The science ↓

Consomme Colbert

Ingredients

Directions

The book gives no cooking times; the times in the steps were added in transcription, so check for doneness rather than trusting the clock.

Make the broth

In a large pot, bring the beef stock to a simmer.
Add the white wine and diced vegetables.
Season with salt and pepper.
Simmer for about 30 minutes to allow flavors to meld.

Strain and serve

Strain the soup to remove solids.
Serve hot, garnished with chopped parsley.

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.

Carrot + parsleytop 1% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together8,053 recipes

Shared aroma: 2,4-decadienal (seaweed).
Carrot + celerytop 1% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together10,173 recipes

Shared aroma: myristicin (spice, warm).
Celery + parsleytop 1% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together6,810 recipes

Shared aroma: 4'-methylacetophenone (bitter almond).
Pepper + parsleytop 2% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together34,122 recipes

Shared aroma: 4'-methylacetophenone (bitter almond).
Celery + peppertop 5% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together16,012 recipes

Shared aroma: 4'-methylacetophenone (bitter almond).

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

What each ingredient does

Beef stock: Forms the liquid base and carries most of the savory flavor of the consommé.
White wine: Adds acidity and aromatic depth that brightens the rich stock.
Diced vegetables: Release sweetness and aromatic compounds into the stock during simmering.

Swap the onion

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (beef, white wine, carrot, celery, pepper, parsley):

Parsnipfits better
Turnipfits better
Capsicumfits better
Onionthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against beef, white wine, carrot, celery, pepper, parsley. 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.