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Ox-Cheek Soup

A hearty soup made with ox cheek, ham, celery, onions, carrots, parsnip, beets, mace, vermicelli, and a French roll.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 14 ingredients
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Ox-Cheek Soup

Why it works: Carrot and parsnip 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 the ox cheek

  1. Break the bones of the ox cheek.

  2. Wash the ox cheek thoroughly in water.

  3. Soak the ox cheek in warm water with a little salt to remove slime.

Make the soup

  1. Melt the butter in a large stewpan.

  2. Place the flesh side of the ox cheek down in the stewpan.

  3. Add the diced ham, celery, onions, carrots, parsnip, beets, and mace.

  4. Cook over moderate heat for 15 minutes to extract flavors.

  5. Add 6 quarts of water to the stewpan.

  6. Simmer until reduced to 2 quarts.

  7. Strain out the meat and vegetables.

  8. Add chopped celery and browning for color.

Finish and serve

  1. Scald the vermicelli in the soup.

  2. Serve with the top of a French roll in the middle of a tureen.

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. Carrot + parsniptop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together1,097 recipes

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

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

    Shared aroma: myristicin (spice, warm).

  3. Celery + parsniptop 3% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together561 recipes

    Shared aroma: myristicin (spice, warm).

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

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

  5. Celery + oniontop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together18,518 recipes

    Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).

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

What each ingredient does

Ox cheek
Gives the soup its meat and rich, gelatinous body as it simmers.
Butter
Fat that softens the vegetables and carries flavor from the aromatics into the stock.
Ham
Adds savory, salty depth to the stock.
Onions
Build the aromatic base and add sweetness as they cook down.
Vermicelli
Thin pasta that adds body and starch to the finished soup.

The step that matters

Simmer until reduced to 2 quarts. Reducing 6 quarts of water concentrates the flavor of the meat, ham and vegetables. Simmering gently keeps the stock clear and avoids boiling the broth cloudy.

Swap the mace

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

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

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