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Ox Cheek Soup

A hearty soup made from ox cheek meat, bones, vegetables, herbs, and vermicelli, simmered for several hours.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 12 ingredients
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Why it works: Carrot and celery 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 ↓

Ox Cheek Soup

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the meat

  1. Separate the bones from the meat and break the bones.

  2. Cut the meat into pieces the length of a finger and the breadth of two.

Make the soup

  1. Combine the meat and bones in a pot with 1 quart of water and a little salt.

  2. Set on a gentle fire and skim well during the first boiling.

  3. After two hours of gentle stewing, add the carrots, turnips, onion, celery, cabbage, sweet herbs, pepper, and vermicelli.

  4. Let it stew for an additional two and a half hours, skimming as needed.

  5. Remove the herbs and bones before serving.

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

    Shared aroma: myristicin (spice, warm).

  2. Carrot + turniptop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together8,002 recipes

    Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).

  3. Turnip + cabbagetop 2% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together897 recipes

    Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).

  4. Turnip + celerytop 2% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together4,418 recipes

    Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).

  5. Celery + peppertop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together16,012 recipes

    Shared aroma: 4'-methylacetophenone (bitter almond).

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

What each ingredient does

Ox cheek meat
Gives the soup its rich, beefy flavor and tender body as it stews slowly.
Carrots
Add natural sweetness and body to the broth as they soften during stewing.
Turnips
Contribute mild sweetness and soften into the broth during the long stew.
Cabbage
Adds bulk and a mild, sweet vegetal flavor as it cooks down into the soup.
Vermicelli
Thickens the broth slightly as its starch releases during simmering.

The step that matters

Skimming during the first boiling. Skimming removes foam and coagulated proteins that rise from the meat and bones. Removing them early keeps the broth clear and free of off-flavors.

Swap the cabbage

The recipe marks cabbage as optional. How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (meat, carrot, turnip, onion, celery, pepper, rice):

  1. Leekfits better
  2. Parsnipfits better
  3. Okrafits better
  4. Cabbagethe original

Fit is the average pairing score against meat, carrot, turnip, onion, celery, pepper, rice. 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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