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Soup

Water Gruel

A simple broth made by boiling beef and bones, optionally with ham, flavored with mushroom catsup, shallot wine, or spices.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 6 ingredients
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Water Gruel

Why it works: Mushroom and shallot are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 4% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 1,982 recipes. Both carry 2,4-decadienal, which smells seaweed. The science ↓

Water Gruel

Ingredients

Directions

  1. Boil the beef and bones together until tender.

  2. If desired, add lean ham in a ratio of 1 pound to 8 pounds of beef.

  3. Flavor the broth with mushroom catsup, shallot wine, or essences of spice or herbs as preferred.

  4. Serve plain or use as a base for beef tea.

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. Mushroom + shallottop 4% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,982 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2,4-decadienal (seaweed).

  2. Beef + mushroomtop 4% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together3,232 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2,4-nonadienal (fatty, green).

  3. Mushroom + winetop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,632 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-methoxy-4-propylphenol (allspice, anise).

  4. Shallot + winetop 14% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together841 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-heptenal (green).

  5. Beef + shallottop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,103 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2,4-decadienal (seaweed).

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

What each ingredient does

Leg of beef
Provides the main meat flavor and gelatin-rich body as it simmers into broth.
Beef
Supplies most of the meaty flavor and richness of the finished broth.
Lean ham
Adds a smoky, salty depth to the broth when included.

The step that matters

Boil until tender, not violently. A hard rolling boil can cloud the broth and toughen the meat. Keeping it at a gentle simmer lets collagen and flavor release slowly and yields a clearer, more tender result.

Swap the shallot

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (beef, ham, mushroom, wine):

  1. Tomatofits better
  2. Shallotthe original
  3. Onionfits about as well
  4. Potatofits about as well

Fit is the average pairing score against beef, ham, mushroom, wine. 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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