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 ↓
Beef Soup
Ingredients
Directions
Skim the scum from the boiling beef and keep it simmering on hot coals for about 8 hours.
After 3 hours, add the celery, carrots, onions, and cabbage or substitute vegetables or tomatoes.
Add the tied herbs to the pot.
Remove the best part of the meat 2 hours before serving and leave the rest to simmer until the soup is ready.
Strain the soup before serving.
For leftovers, simmer the soup again for 30 minutes the next day.
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.
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Celery + carrottop 1% of all pairsSmell alikestrongCooked together10,173 recipes
Shared aroma: myristicin (spice, warm).
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Celery + cabbagetop 6% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together1,840 recipes
Shared aroma: 4'-methylacetophenone (bitter almond).
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Carrot + oniontop 6% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together21,601 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).
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Beef + oniontop 7% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together17,092 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).
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Celery + oniontop 7% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked 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
- Leg of beef
- Gives the soup its main body and rich meaty flavour as it simmers.
- Celery
- Adds aromatic flavour and subtle sweetness to the broth as it cooks.
- Carrots
- Contribute natural sweetness and body to the broth.
- Onions
- Build savoury depth and aroma in the broth.
- Cabbage
- Adds bulk and a mild sweetness to the soup.
The step that matters
Skim the scum from the boiling beef. Scum is coagulated proteins and impurities that rise during the first boil. Removing it keeps the broth clearer and cleaner in flavour, so skim before the long simmer begins.
Swap the cabbage
How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (beef, celery, carrot, onion):
- Turnipfits better
- Leekfits better
- Potatofits better
- Cabbagethe original
Fit is the average pairing score against beef, celery, carrot, onion. 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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