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Hessian Soup

A hearty soup made with beef or mutton, vegetables, and grains simmered for hours.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 9 ingredients
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Why it works: Onion and potato are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 3% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 9,023 recipes. Both carry 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine, which smells earthy, pea. The science ↓

Hessian Soup

Ingredients

Directions

Make the broth

  1. Cut the meat into small pieces and place it in a pot with no water.

  2. Stew for about 1 hour.

  3. Add 2 quarts of boiling water and let it stew for 2 hours.

  4. Remove the meat, cut it into small pieces, and return it to the pot.

Finish and serve

  1. Add the ground rice, oatmeal, herbs, onions, potatoes, and turnips.

  2. Season with salt and pepper, and boil for 4 hours over low heat.

  3. Serve without straining.

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. Onion + potatotop 3% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together9,023 recipes

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

  2. Onion + turniptop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together7,585 recipes

    Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).

  3. Rice + potatotop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together851 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-acetyl-1-pyrroline (popcorn, roasted).

  4. Beef + oniontop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together17,092 recipes

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

  5. Potato + turniptop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together562 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

Beef, mutton, or veal
Provides meat flavour and richness to the broth as it stews.
Ground rice
Thickens the soup as its starch swells during long simmering.
Oatmeal
Adds body and thickness, helping the soup become hearty.
Potatoes
Soften during simmering, adding starch that gives the soup more body.
Turnips
Soften during simmering, adding mild sweetness and bulk to the soup.
Onions
Break down during long cooking, adding sweetness and savoury depth.

The step that matters

Keeping the long simmer gentle over low heat. Boiling the soup for four hours over low heat lets the meat and vegetables become tender and the starches fully swell and thicken. Too much heat can scorch the bottom of the pot, so the liquid should be kept at a low, steady simmer and stirred occasionally.

Swap the turnip

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (beef, rice, onion, potato, pepper):

  1. Carrotfits better
  2. Tomatofits better
  3. Chivefits better
  4. Turnipthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against beef, rice, onion, potato, pepper. 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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