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Clear Soup

A clear beef broth made by boiling beef, seasoning with allspice, pepper, and salt, then skimming and straining.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 4 ingredients
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Clear Soup

Why it works: Allspice and pepper match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 5% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 6,395 recipes. Both carry estragole, which smells anise, licorice. The science ↓

Clear Soup

Ingredients

Directions

Make the broth

  1. Boil the beef in water the day before until all the substance is extracted.

  2. Set the beef aside until the next day.

  3. Skim off the grease.

  4. Strain the broth twice through a cloth, allowing it to settle each time.

Season and serve

  1. Add the allspice, pepper, and salt to taste.

  2. Serve very hot, removing the allspice and pepper 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. Allspice + peppertop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together6,395 recipes

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

  2. Beef + peppertop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together18,971 recipes

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

  3. Beef + allspicetop 19% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,940 recipes

    Shared aroma: eucalyptol (eucalyptus, herbal).

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

What each ingredient does

Beef
Releases gelatin and flavor into the water, giving the broth its body and savoury taste.
Allspice
Adds warm, aromatic flavor to the broth while it is infused.
Pepper
Adds mild, sharp aroma and heat to the seasoned broth.

The step that matters

Straining the broth twice. Straining through a cloth and letting the broth settle each time removes fine particles and fat, so the soup comes out clear rather than cloudy.

Swap the allspice

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (beef, pepper):

  1. Rosemaryfits better
  2. Parsleyfits better
  3. Marjoramfits better
  4. Allspicethe original

Fit is the average pairing score against beef, pepper. 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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