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Clear Soup

A clear beef soup with carrots, turnips, leeks, cabbage lettuce, peas, and a touch of sugar.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 9 ingredients
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Clear Soup

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 ↓

Clear Soup

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Remove all fat from the stock.

  2. Put the stock into a stewpan.

  3. Trim the fat and skin from the gravy beef and chop it finely.

  4. Add the chopped beef to the stewpan.

  5. Wash the carrots, turnips, and leeks in cold water.

  6. Scrape the carrot clean and slice it.

  7. Peel the turnip and cut it into small pieces.

  8. Trim the leek, chop it finely, and add it to the stewpan.

Simmer

  1. Stir the vegetables into the stock until well mixed.

  2. Place the stewpan on the fire and stir until boiling.

  3. Skim the surface carefully with a large spoon.

  4. Reduce the heat and let it simmer gently for 20 minutes.

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. Turnip + leektop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together1,046 recipes

    Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).

  2. Turnip + lettucetop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together526 recipes

    Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).

  3. Leek + lettucetop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together217 recipes

    Shared aroma: trans-2-hexenal (green, leafy).

  4. Carrot + turniptop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together8,002 recipes

    Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).

  5. Turnip + cabbagetop 2% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together897 recipes

    Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).

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

What each ingredient does

Gravy beef
Provides rich meat flavor to the clear broth as it simmers.
Stock
Forms the liquid base that carries the flavor of the soup.
Leeks
Add a mild onion-like aroma and sweetness to the broth.
Carrots
Add natural sweetness and color to the soup.
Turnips
Add mild sweetness and a soft texture when simmered.

The step that matters

Skim the surface carefully. Fat and proteins rise to the surface as the stock heats. Skimming them off keeps the broth clear and free of greasy flavor.

Swap the peas

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (beef, carrot, turnip, leek, cabbage, lettuce, sugar):

  1. Lentilsfits better
  2. Beansfits better
  3. Chestnutfits better
  4. Peasthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against beef, carrot, turnip, leek, cabbage, lettuce, sugar. 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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