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Soup

Clear Soup

A clear broth made from beef shin, veal knuckle, spices, and Worcestershire sauce, served hot.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 10 ingredients
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Clear Soup

Why it works: Pepper and clove match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 5% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 17,451 recipes. Both carry ethyl octanoate, which smells fruity, wine. The science ↓

Clear Soup

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the stock

  1. Ask your butcher to crack the bones and joints of the beef shin and veal knuckle.

  2. Put the meat over the fire with 8 quarts of cold water; cover and heat until hot.

  3. Increase the heat and remove the scum as it rises; keep at a slow bubble for 3 hours.

  4. Add the black peppers and cloves, and boil slowly for another 3 hours.

Chill and skim

  1. The day before serving, strain the soup into a bowl and let it cool overnight.

  2. Remove the solidified fat from the top and return the bones and liquid to the fire.

  3. Heat the stock and strain through a colander into a clean pot.

Clarify and serve

  1. For serving, heat 1 quart of stock, adding the quarter onion.

  2. When it simmers, stir in the egg white and shell until coagulated.

  3. Strain through a thick cloth, boil again, and add Worcestershire sauce and celery extract before serving.

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. Pepper + clovetop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together17,451 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl octanoate (fruity, wine).

  2. Pepper + celerytop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together16,012 recipes

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

  3. Clove + celerytop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together4,668 recipes

    Shared aroma: gamma-decalactone (peach, creamy).

  4. Beef + oniontop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together17,092 recipes

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

  5. Onion + celerytop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together18,518 recipes

    Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).

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

What each ingredient does

Beef shin
Gives body and rich flavour to the broth as it simmers for hours.
Veal knuckle
Adds gelatin from the cracked bones, giving the stock body and mouthfeel.
Egg white and shell
Coagulates as it heats, trapping suspended particles so the broth clears.
Whole black peppers
Adds aromatic warmth to the broth during the long simmer.

The step that matters

Stirring in the egg white and shell. The egg white must be stirred in as the stock simmers, not boiled hard. Gentle heat lets the white coagulate and trap fine particles, which clears the broth; vigorous boiling breaks up the raft and leaves it cloudy.

Swap the clove

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (beef, veal, pepper, onion, egg, sauce, celery):

  1. Parsleyfits better
  2. Tarragonfits better
  3. Capersfits better
  4. Clovethe original

Fit is the average pairing score against beef, veal, pepper, onion, egg, sauce, 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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