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Soup

Mock Ox-tail Soup

A vegetable soup that imitates oxtail flavor using parsnips, celery, leeks, carrots, turnips, Jerusalem artichokes, mushrooms, and seasonings.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 19 ingredients
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Why it works: Leek and turnip match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 1,046 recipes. Both carry coumarin, which smells sweet, hay. The science ↓

Mock Ox-tail Soup

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the vegetables

  1. Cut parsnips, celery, leeks, carrot, turnip, and red onions into pieces.

  2. Brown the vegetables in butter.

Simmer the soup

  1. Add water and plenty of Jerusalem artichokes and mushrooms.

  2. Include the green part of leek, bay leaf, pepper, parsley, and salt.

  3. Cover and let simmer until juices are drawn out.

Finish and serve

  1. Strain the mixture, thicken with butter and flour, and brown with Kitchen Bouquet.

  2. When serving, add madeira or sherry for flavor and include egg balls or egg yolks.

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. Leek + turniptop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together1,046 recipes

    Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).

  2. Leek + jerusalem artichoketop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together13 recipes

    Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).

  3. Turnip + jerusalem artichoketop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together74 recipes

    Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).

  4. Parsnip + turniptop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together590 recipes

    Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).

  5. Parsnip + leektop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together165 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

Parsnips
Their starchy sweetness adds body and a mellow, earthy flavor to the broth.
Leeks
They build a mild onion-like aroma and savory base for the soup.
Jerusalem artichokes
They release starch and natural sweetness, adding body and depth to the stock.
Butter
Browning the vegetables in butter develops richer, roasted flavors through caramelization.
Flour
Combined with butter, it forms a roux that thickens the strained soup.
Egg yolks
They enrich the soup, adding richness and a smooth, velvety texture when stirred in.

The step that matters

Browning the vegetables in butter. Browning relies on the Maillard reaction and caramelization, which build deep, savory flavor. Vegetables that are pale rather than golden will give the soup a flat, under-developed taste.

Swap the onion

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (parsnip, celery, leek, carrot, turnip, butter, jerusalem artichoke):

  1. Beetrootfits better
  2. Shallotfits better
  3. Lettucefits better
  4. Onionthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against parsnip, celery, leek, carrot, turnip, butter, jerusalem artichoke. 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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