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Kentucky Receipt Hook

A thickened soup made with beef stock, tomatoes, milk, butter crackers, and seasonings.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
By Frazer, Mary Harris · From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 11 ingredients
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Why it works: Tomato and corn match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 6% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 2,099 recipes. Both carry 2-nonenal, which smells fatty, green. The science ↓

Kentucky Receipt Hook

Ingredients

Directions

Make the stock

  1. Gather fresh meat bones for stock: hock or shins of beef, ends of rib roast, portions of neck or shoulder.

  2. Sponge the outside of the bones with a cloth wrung out of warm water, but do not wet the freshly cut surface of the meat.

  3. Cut meat from the bones and put it in a soup kettle, inserting a perforated plate to prevent bones from touching the bottom.

  4. Cover with cold water and close the kettle with a fitting top.

  5. Bring to a boil, then let it boil gently for 5 minutes.

  6. Reduce heat and simmer for 8 hours.

  7. After 2 hours, add seasoning: 1 level teaspoon salt and 4 peppercorns per quart of liquid.

  8. After cooking, strain the meat and bones.

  9. Add 2 quarts of water and simmer for 2 hours to yield a lighter stock.

  10. Cool the stock quickly and put it in an ice box until needed.

  11. Skim off all grease and strain again.

Prepare the tomatoes

  1. Take 1 quart of tomatoes and cook them.

  2. When hot, add a pinch of soda, let it foam, skim well, and press through a sieve.

  3. Set the tomato mixture on the back of the range to keep it hot.

Make the soup and serve

  1. Heat 1 quart of milk in a double boiler.

  2. After the milk boils, add 7 pulverized butter crackers, a large lump of butter, pepper, and salt.

  3. When ready to serve, add the cooked tomatoes to the milk.

Nutrition, whole recipe (rough)

939Calories
28 gProtein
23 gFat
158 gCarbs

Counts 9 of 11 ingredients. The other 2 aren't in our nutrition table and add nothing above, so the real totals are higher.

What these numbers assume: 9 portions
IngredientPortion assumedkcal
Flour1 cup (125g) all-purpose455
Milk1 cup (244ml) whole149
Butter1 tbsp (14g)102
Bread1 slice (30g) white79
Corn1/2 cup kernels (82g)77
Sugar1 tbsp (12.5g) granulated49
Tomato1 medium (123g)22
Black Pepper1 tsp ground (2.3g)6
Salt1 tsp (6g)0
Soupnot in our table0
Waternot in our table0

One typical portion per ingredient; the recipe's quantities are not counted. A rough guide only, not for medical or dietary planning.

By Frazer, Mary Harris. 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. See the original page.

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. Tomato + corntop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together2,099 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).

  2. Bread + buttertop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together27,232 recipes

    Shared aroma: delta-decalactone (sweet, creamy).

  3. Milk + buttertop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together81,283 recipes

    Shared aroma: (z)-4-heptenal (biscuit, cream).

  4. Tomato + peppertop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together17,923 recipes

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

  5. Bread + tomatotop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,013 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).

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

What each ingredient does

Milk
Forms the creamy body of the soup and carries the other flavours.
Tomatoes
Provide the main flavour and acidity of the soup.
Butter crackers
Pulverized crackers thicken the soup and add a toasty, savoury note.
Meat bones (in the method)
Release gelatin and savoury flavour into the stock as they simmer.

The step that matters

Adding the cooked tomatoes to the milk. Tomatoes are acidic, and adding them to hot milk can curdle it. Adding them only when ready to serve, and keeping the milk from boiling hard, helps keep the soup smooth.

Swap the tomato

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (bread, milk, pepper, corn, butter):

  1. Capsicumfits better
  2. Potatofits about as well
  3. Tomatothe original
  4. Asparagusfits about as well

Fit is the average pairing score against bread, milk, pepper, corn, butter. 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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