Why it works: Pepper and celery match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 5% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 16,012 recipes. Both carry 4'-methylacetophenone, which smells bitter almond. The science ↓
A Clear Beef Soup
Ingredients
Directions
Prepare the broth
Cut the beef shank into pieces and set aside until the next day.
Crush the bones and place them in a kettle with 5 quarts of water and a little coarse sea salt.
Cover and simmer for the entire day, adding more water if necessary, then strain through a colander.
Second day
The next morning, remove the grease from the top and return the soup to the kettle.
Add the beef and let it simmer for 5-6 hours, then strain again through a colander.
Finish and serve
On the third morning, remove the grease again; just before serving, let it begin to boil.
Strain through a piece of muslin and return to the cleaned kettle.
Season with salt, pepper, sherry or Worcestershire sauce, and a little celery.
Add parboiled vermicelli five minutes before serving, if desired.
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.
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Pepper + celerytop 5% of all pairsSmell alikestrongCooked together16,012 recipes
Shared aroma: 4'-methylacetophenone (bitter almond).
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Beef + peppertop 10% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together18,971 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).
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Beef + celerytop 13% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together4,370 recipes
Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).
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Sherry + celerytop 17% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together785 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-methoxy-4-vinylphenol (clove, smoky).
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Pepper + sherrytop 18% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together3,107 recipes
Shared aroma: piperonal (bitter, coconut).
Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs
What each ingredient does
- Beef shank
- Provides meat and collagen-rich connective tissue that gives the broth body and savoury flavour as it simmers.
- Beef bones
- Release gelatin and marrow flavour into the water during the long simmer, giving the broth body.
- Water
- Acts as the cooking liquid that extracts flavour and gelatin from the meat and bones.
The step that matters
Skimming the grease. Fat that is not removed on each morning floats on the surface and makes the finished broth greasy and cloudy. Removing it before the broth is reheated keeps it clear and clean-tasting.
Swap the celery
How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (beef, pepper, sherry):
- Thymefits better
- Marjoramfits about as well
- Celerythe original
- Parsleyfits about as well
Fit is the average pairing score against beef, pepper, sherry. 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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