Why it works: Thyme and marjoram match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and 2,225 recipes mention both. Both carry terpineol, which smells pine, woody. The science ↓
The recipe
Ingredients
Contains: milk, wheat, soy (auto-detected from the ingredients and method; we can miss things, so check labels)
Directions
Make the stock
Let the beef and hock or calf's head simmer for 3½ hours in the water, adding salt to taste.
Make the roux and soup
Slowly sauté the finely chopped bacon with the herbs in the butter.
Add the flour and let the flour and butter brown, but not burn.
Slowly add the hot stock, bringing the mixture to a boil between additions.
Let it simmer for about ½ an hour, pour through a sieve and add the soy or meat drippings.
Add back the meat stripped off the hock or the calf's head and the beef.
This recipe comes from the Recipes Wiki on Fandom and is licensed CC BY-SA 4.0. Our formatting and summaries are shared under the same licence.
Steps grouped into stages for easier reading; the method is the source's own.
Explore the science
The flavor team
The pairs that carry this dish. Each one is judged two ways: how much aroma chemistry they share, and how many recipes mention both.
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Thyme + marjoramtop 1% of all pairsAroma overlapstrongMentioned together2,225 recipes
Shared aroma: terpineol (pine, woody).
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Carrot + parsleytop 1% of all pairsAroma overlapstrongMentioned together8,053 recipes
Shared aroma: myristicin (spice, warm).
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Parsley + thymetop 1% of all pairsAroma overlapstrongMentioned together9,057 recipes
Shared aroma: cuminaldehyde (Spicy, cumin).
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Parsley + marjoramtop 1% of all pairsAroma overlapstrongMentioned together1,979 recipes
Shared aroma: cuminaldehyde (Spicy, cumin).
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Carrot + marjoramtop 2% of all pairsAroma overlapstrongMentioned together687 recipes
Shared aroma: cuminaldehyde (Spicy, cumin).
Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs
What each ingredient does
- Flour
- Browned in butter, it thickens the stock into a smooth, rich soup.
- Butter
- Carries the herbs and bacon flavour and browns with the flour to build depth.
- Calf hock or calf's head
- Releases gelatin and savoury flavour into the stock, giving the soup body.
- Beef
- Adds meaty flavour to the stock during the long simmer.
- Bacon
- Fat and smoky savour that flavours the butter base.
The step that matters
Browning the flour and butter. The roux must brown without burning. Scorched flour gives a bitter taste and dark specks, while underbrowned flour leaves a raw, pasty flavour and weaker thickening.
Flavor stand-ins for the onion
How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (beef, butter, flour, carrot, parsley, thyme, marjoram):
- Potatobetter flavor fit
- Parsnipbetter flavor fit
- Leekbetter flavor fit
- Onionthe original
Fit is the average pairing score against beef, butter, flour, carrot, parsley, thyme, marjoram. Candidates are from the same food group and used in at least 100 recipes. This compares flavor only: it does not check the job the ingredient does in the dish (bulk, moisture, acidity, structure).
“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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