Skip to main content
Main

Summer Soup

A hearty beef soup with corn, tomatoes, potatoes, onions, and fresh cream.

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

Why it works: Potato and onion are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 3% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 9,023 recipes. Both carry 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine, which smells earthy, pea. The science ↓

Summer Soup

Ingredients

Directions

Make the broth

  1. Place the beef shank in a kettle with 4 quarts of water.

  2. Boil slowly for 6 hours, until the water is reduced to 2 quarts.

Finish the soup

  1. An hour before serving, add the green corn, tomatoes, potatoes, and onions.

  2. Add sweet herbs if desired.

  3. Season with salt and pepper to taste.

  4. Just before serving, mix the flour smoothly into the fresh cream and add it to the soup.

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. Potato + oniontop 3% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together9,023 recipes

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

  2. Corn + potatotop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together938 recipes

    Shared aroma: (e)-2-octenal (fatty, green).

  3. Tomato + potatotop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together2,798 recipes

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

  4. Corn + tomatotop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together2,099 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).

  5. Beef + oniontop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together17,092 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 shank
Slow simmering releases its collagen and flavor into the water, forming the broth.
Green corn
Adds sweetness and body as it cooks into the soup.
Tomatoes
Add acidity and brightness that balance the rich broth.
Potatoes
Starch from the potatoes softens and thickens the soup slightly.
Fresh cream
Adds richness and a smooth, velvety texture.
Flour
Thickens the cream so it blends into the soup without lumps.

The step that matters

Adding the flour and cream mixture. Flour must be mixed smoothly into the cream before it goes in, because dry flour added directly to hot liquid clumps. Stirring it into cold cream first lets the starch disperse evenly, and adding it just before serving keeps the cream from curdling or boiling for long.

Swap the tomato

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (beef, corn, potato, onion, pepper, cream, flour):

  1. Chivefits better
  2. Okrafits better
  3. Capsicumfits better
  4. Tomatothe original

Fit is the average pairing score against beef, corn, potato, onion, pepper, cream, flour. 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.

You might also like

Tomato SoupTomato Soup526 recipesPotato CroquettesPotato Croquettes255 recipesRoast BeefRoast Beef211 recipesCorn FrittersCorn Fritters203 recipes