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Consomme or Stock

A clear broth made by simmering chicken, veal, beef, and vegetables in water.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 11 ingredients
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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 ↓

Consomme or Stock

Ingredients

Directions

  1. In a large pot, combine the chicken, veal, beef, and water.

  2. Skim off the scum as it rises until it stops appearing.

  3. Add the carrot, turnip, onion, leek, cloves, celery, and salt.

  4. Simmer gently for four hours.

  5. Remove any grease and strain the stock through a flannel.

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. 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. Onion + leektop 4% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together1,326 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl butyrate (apple, fruity).

  5. Chicken + beeftop 4% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together2,148 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-furfurylthiol (coffee, roasted).

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

What each ingredient does

Chicken
Gives the stock its main poultry flavour and body as it simmers.
Veal knuckle
Adds gelatin from bones and connective tissue, giving the consommé body and mouthfeel.
Beef
Contributes deep meaty flavour to the long simmer.
Onion
Adds sweetness and savoury depth as it cooks down into the stock.

The step that matters

Skim off the scum as it rises. Scum is coagulated protein and impurities. Removing it early keeps the stock clear and clean-tasting, while letting it boil in would cloud the liquid.

Swap the clove

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

  1. Celeryfits better
  2. Thymefits better
  3. Garlicfits better
  4. Clovethe original

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

More consommé recipes

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