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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.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 16 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, stirring frequently.

  3. Once browned, add the bones and pour in the boiling water gradually.

Simmer

  1. Skim off any scum that rises and add a pint of cold water to bring it to the surface.

  2. When no more scum appears, add salt, onions, carrots, turnips, celery, herbs, cloves, white pepper, and mace.

  3. Let the soup boil gently for 5 to 6 hours.

Strain and serve

  1. Strain the soup through a fine cloth in a sieve and let it cool.

  2. Remove any fat from the top and heat the desired amount in a clean pan.

  3. Add salt and a few drops of vinegar or sauce to taste before serving.

  4. Serve with fried bread sippets 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
Releases gelatin and savoury flavour into the broth, giving body as it simmers.
Lean beef
Browning and long simmering build deep, rich meat flavour in the broth.
Ham
Browned first, it adds savoury, smoky depth to the stock.
Onions
Sweetness and aroma develop as they soften during the long simmer.
Carrots
Add natural sweetness and body to the broth as they cook down.
Celery
Contributes aromatic, savoury flavour to the stock.

The step that matters

Skimming the scum. Foam and impurities that rise early can cloud the broth and taint its flavour. Skimming them as they form, and adding cold water to bring the rest to the surface, keeps the soup clear and clean-tasting.

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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