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Soup

Meat Soup

A simple soup made with fresh meat, bones, ham or salt pork, simmered in water.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 5 ingredients
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Why it works: Meat and pork are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 11% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 3,208 recipes. Both carry 1-octen-3-one, which smells mushroom, metallic. The science ↓

Meat Soup

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Cut meat into small pieces and chop bones.

  2. Pack meat and bones in a soup kettle.

  3. Cover with twice the bulk of water.

Simmer

  1. Add a small piece of ham or salt pork for flavor.

  2. Use cold water and let it sit until the juice begins to draw.

  3. Set the kettle on the back of the stove to warm gradually.

  4. Allow it to come to a gentle boil and maintain for several hours.

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. Meat + porktop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together3,208 recipes

    Shared aroma: 1-octen-3-one (mushroom, metallic).

  2. Ham + porktop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,638 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-acetyl-1-pyrroline (popcorn, roasted).

  3. Meat + hamtop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,095 recipes

    Shared aroma: 1-octen-3-one (mushroom, metallic).

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

What each ingredient does

Fresh meat
Provides the main body and rich meaty flavor of the broth as it cooks.
Bones
Release gelatin and flavor into the water during long, slow cooking, adding body to the soup.
Ham
Adds smoky, savory depth to the broth.

The step that matters

Warming gradually and keeping a gentle boil. Starting in cold water and heating slowly lets the juices and flavors draw out gradually. A hard, rapid boil can toughen meat fibers and cloud the broth, so a gentle simmer over several hours gives a clearer, more tender result.

“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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