Skip to main content
Main

Clear Soup

A clear beef stock soup with vegetables, egg whites, and seasonings.

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

Why it works: Allspice and clove match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 7,874 recipes. Both carry estragole, which smells anise, licorice. The science ↓

Clear Soup

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the stock

  1. Ensure the stock is cold and free from fat.

Clarify and simmer

  1. In a clean, well-tinned stew pan, combine the stock, vegetables, seasonings, crushed egg shells, and stiffly whisked egg whites.

  2. Heat gently until just boiling, then let it simmer for about 1 hour.

Strain and serve

  1. Strain the soup through a clean, dry cloth.

  2. Reheat and season to taste before serving.

  3. Optionally, add ½ glass of sherry, 1 teaspoon of French vinegar or lemon juice, and a small pinch of caster sugar when reheating.

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. Allspice + clovetop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together7,874 recipes

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

  2. Carrot + celerytop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together10,173 recipes

    Shared aroma: myristicin (spice, warm).

  3. Carrot + clovetop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together5,873 recipes

    Shared aroma: cuminaldehyde (Spicy, cumin).

  4. Carrot + allspicetop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together1,021 recipes

    Shared aroma: beta-phellandrene (minty, terpene).

  5. Celery + allspicetop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together1,422 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

Lean neck of beef
Breaks down during simmering and releases flavour and gelatin into the stock, adding body.
Egg whites and shells
Coagulate as the soup heats, trapping particles so they can be strained out, leaving the broth clear.
Brown stock
Forms the liquid base and carries most of the savoury flavour of the soup.

The step that matters

Heating gently to a simmer. If the soup boils vigorously, the egg white raft breaks apart and disperses cloudiness through the broth. Bringing it just to boiling and then simmering gently lets the raft form and hold the particles for clarifying.

Swap the onion

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (beef, egg, carrot, celery, allspice, clove):

  1. Parsnipfits better
  2. Leekfits better
  3. Turnipfits better
  4. Onionthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against beef, egg, carrot, celery, allspice, clove. 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 clear soup recipes

Stock 33Beef 3 See all 53 →

You might also like

Roast BeefRoast Beef211 recipesBeef LoafBeef Loaf175 recipesCarrot SoupCarrot Soup134 recipesCream of Celery SoupCream of Celery Soup113 recipes