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Economical Soup

A soup made from leftover roast beef, ham, okra, tomatoes, and bread.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 8 ingredients
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Why it works: Okra and tomato work together. They rank in the top 3% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 327 recipes. Both carry damascenone, which smells apple, rose. The science ↓

Economical Soup

Ingredients

Directions

Make the soup

  1. Combine leftover roast beef, bones, and ham with enough water to cover them in a pot.

  2. Add okra and chopped tomatoes, then season with pepper and salt.

  3. Boil until the okra is dissolved.

  4. Skim the soup carefully.

  5. Strain the soup.

Serve

  1. Toast slices of bread.

  2. Cut the toasted bread into small pieces.

  3. Pour the strained soup over the toast pieces.

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. Okra + tomatotop 3% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together327 recipes

    Shared aroma: damascenone (apple, rose).

  2. Tomato + peppertop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together17,923 recipes

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

  3. Ham + breadtop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,536 recipes

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

  4. Beef + tomatotop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together5,448 recipes

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

  5. Okra + peppertop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together727 recipes

    Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).

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

What each ingredient does

Leftover roast beef meat and bones
Gives the soup its main meaty flavour and body as it simmers.
Ham
Adds savoury, salty depth to the broth.
Okra
Breaks down during boiling and thickens the soup.
Tomatoes
Add acidity and a fresh, tangy flavour to the broth.
Bread
Soaks up the soup, giving a soft, absorbent base for serving.

The step that matters

Boil until the okra is dissolved. Okra releases pectin and mucilage as it cooks, which thickens the broth. Boiling too briefly leaves the soup thin, while overcooking can dull the flavour.

Swap the okra

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

  1. Capsicumfits better
  2. Potatofits better
  3. Carrotfits better
  4. Okrathe original

Fit is the average pairing score against beef, meat, ham, tomato, pepper, bread. 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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