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Vegetable Soup

A hearty beef vegetable soup with tomatoes, potatoes, beans, onion, corn, thickened with flour.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 10 ingredients
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Vegetable Soup

Why it works: Tomato and beans match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 2,713 recipes. Both carry 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine, which smells earthy, pea. The science ↓

Vegetable Soup

Ingredients

Directions

Make the broth

  1. Combine the cracked beef and cold water in a large pot.

  2. Bring the mixture to a boil.

  3. Simmer for 3 hours.

Add the vegetables

  1. Add the can of tomatoes, diced potatoes, butter beans, and sliced onion to the pot.

  2. Simmer for an additional 30 minutes.

  3. Stir in the corn.

  4. Season with salt and pepper.

Thicken and serve

  1. Thicken the soup with a mixture of flour and water stirred to a cream, then blend well.

  2. Serve hot.

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.

Photo for illustrative purposes only · Contact us to use it

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. Tomato + beanstop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together2,713 recipes

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

  2. Beans + corntop 3% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together1,211 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2,3-pentanedione (butter, sweet).

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

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

  4. Potato + corntop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together938 recipes

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

  5. Potato + beanstop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together655 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-isobutyl-3-methoxypyrazine (green bell pepper, earthy).

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

What each ingredient does

Beef shank
Slow simmering draws flavor and body from the meat and bone into the broth.
Tomatoes
Add acidity and body, giving the broth a rounder, brighter flavor.
Potatoes
Their starch softens during simmering and adds body to the broth.
Flour
Its starch swells in hot liquid and thickens the soup.
Butter beans
Soften during simmering and add a creamy texture and substance.
Corn
Adds natural sweetness and a tender bite.

The step that matters

Thickening with flour and water. Flour should be mixed smoothly with water before it goes in, so it does not clump. Its starch only thickens the soup once it is hot, so the mixture must be stirred into the simmering soup and given time to set the body.

Swap the onion

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (beef, tomato, potato, butter, beans, corn, flour):

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

Fit is the average pairing score against beef, tomato, potato, butter, beans, corn, 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.

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