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Ox-cheek Soup

A hearty soup made with ox cheek, ham or bacon, vegetables, herbs, and served with a French roll.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 16 ingredients
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Ox-cheek Soup

Why it works: Parsnip and carrot match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 1,097 recipes. Both carry 2-isobutyl-3-methoxypyrazine, which smells green bell pepper, earthy. The science ↓

Ox-cheek Soup

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Place the ham and butter at the bottom of a large stewpan.

  2. Clean the ox cheek and break its bones.

  3. Add the ox cheek to the pan.

  4. Chop the vegetables and add them to the stewpan.

Make the soup

  1. Set the stewpan over low heat for 30 minutes.

  2. Add the water and simmer gently until reduced to 4 quarts.

  3. Remove the meat.

  4. Strain the soup into a clean stewpan.

  5. Thicken the soup with flour.

  6. Add sliced celery and simmer until the celery is tender.

  7. Add browning for color if needed.

Serve

  1. Cut the meat into small pieces.

  2. Pour the soup over the meat.

  3. Serve with the crust of a French roll.

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. Parsnip + carrottop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together1,097 recipes

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

  2. Carrot + celerytop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together10,173 recipes

    Shared aroma: myristicin (spice, warm).

  3. Parsnip + celerytop 3% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together561 recipes

    Shared aroma: myristicin (spice, warm).

  4. Carrot + clovetop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together5,873 recipes

    Shared aroma: cuminaldehyde (Spicy, cumin).

  5. Parsnip + clovetop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together306 recipes

    Shared aroma: myrcene (balsamic, herbaceous).

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

What each ingredient does

Ox cheek
Provides the main meat and, as it cooks, rich flavor and gelatin for body in the soup.
Butter
Carries flavor from the ham and vegetables and adds richness to the soup.
Ham or bacon
Adds smoky, salty savory flavor to the stock.
Onions
Build the savory base of the soup through slow cooking and sweetness.
Carrots
Add natural sweetness and body to the stock.
Flour (in the method)
Thickens the strained soup so it has a fuller texture.

The step that matters

Simmer gently until reduced to 4 quarts. A hard boil makes the stock cloudy and can toughen the meat, while gentle simmering draws out collagen and flavor slowly. Reducing to the stated volume concentrates the soup so the final flavor is not watery.

Swap the mace

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (butter, ham, parsnip, carrot, onion, celery, clove):

  1. Parsleyfits better
  2. Thymefits better
  3. Marjoramfits better
  4. Macethe original

Fit is the average pairing score against butter, ham, parsnip, carrot, onion, celery, clove. 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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