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Soup

Portable Soup

A broth simmered from veal and beef bones, herbs, celery, onions, carrots, mace, cloves, and bay leaves.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 11 ingredients
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Why it works: Celery and carrot match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 10,173 recipes. Both carry myristicin, which smells spice, warm. The science ↓

Portable Soup

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Remove the marrow from the bones.

Make the broth

  1. Place all ingredients in a stock pot.

  2. Simmer slowly for 12 hours, or longer if the meat is not falling apart.

Finish and store

  1. Strain the mixture and store in a very cool place.

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. Celery + carrottop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together10,173 recipes

    Shared aroma: myristicin (spice, warm).

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

    Shared aroma: cuminaldehyde (Spicy, cumin).

  3. Onion + carrottop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together21,601 recipes

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

  4. Celery + clovetop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together4,668 recipes

    Shared aroma: gamma-decalactone (peach, creamy).

  5. Mace + clovetop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together8,400 recipes

    Shared aroma: methyleugenol (clove, spice).

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

What each ingredient does

Veal knuckles
Release collagen and gelatin into the water, giving the broth body and a rich mouthfeel.
Beef shins
Add collagen-rich connective tissue that breaks down slowly, enriching flavor and texture.
Onions
Contribute sweetness and savory depth as they soften and release their flavor into the liquid.
Celery
Adds aromatic, vegetal flavor that builds the background of the broth.
Carrots
Add gentle sweetness and aromatic depth to the long-simmered broth.

The step that matters

Simmer slowly for 12 hours. A gentle, slow simmer lets collagen in the bones and connective tissue convert to gelatin without clouding the broth. A hard boil emulsifies fat and cloudies the liquid, so keep it at a bare simmer.

Swap the mace

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (veal, beef, celery, onion, carrot, clove):

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

Fit is the average pairing score against veal, beef, celery, onion, carrot, 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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