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Consomme

A clear beef, veal, and chicken consommé made with butter, ham, vegetables, herbs, and egg whites.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 12 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 ↓

Consomme

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Spread butter on the bottom of a soup kettle.

  2. Layer with raw ham.

  3. Add the beef, veal, and chicken pieces.

  4. Pour in 2 quarts of cold water.

  5. Set over medium heat.

Make the broth

  1. Let it boil slowly until the water reduces and a rich brown gravy forms at the bottom.

  2. Stir frequently to prevent burning.

  3. Add enough cold water to cover the meat.

  4. Add salt, carrot, turnip, celery root, onions, and the bouquet.

  5. Cover the kettle tightly.

  6. Boil slowly until the meat separates from the bone.

  7. Remove the meat.

  8. Strain the broth, discarding any fat.

  9. Return the broth to the kettle.

Clarify and finish

  1. Beat the whites of 3 eggs to a stiff froth.

  2. Mix the froth with ½ cup cold water.

  3. Add the mixture to the soup.

  4. Stir and boil for 5 minutes.

  5. Let it sit off the heat for 10 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.

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. Beef + chickentop 4% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together2,148 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-furfurylthiol (coffee, roasted).

  5. Beef + carrottop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together6,606 recipes

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

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

What each ingredient does

Beef
Slow simmering draws collagen from meat and bone, giving the broth body and a rich gelatin texture.
Veal
Bones and connective tissue release collagen during long simmering, adding body and depth to the broth.
Chicken
Adds savory flavor and body to the broth as it simmers with the other meats.
Egg whites
Coagulate when heated and trap fine particles, clearing the broth into a sparkling consommé.
Onions
Caramelized and simmered, they add sweetness and aroma that round out the broth.

The step that matters

Adding the egg white froth and boiling. Egg whites coagulate as they heat and form a raft that traps cloudy particles. Stirring in the froth before boiling lets the raft form evenly, and the rest off the heat lets it settle so the broth clears.

Swap the turnip

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (beef, veal, chicken, butter, ham, carrot, celery):

  1. Onionfits better
  2. Potatofits better
  3. Leekfits better
  4. Turnipthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against beef, veal, chicken, butter, ham, carrot, 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.

More consommé recipes

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