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Hessian Soup

A hearty soup made with split peas, ox head, carrots, turnips, potatoes, onions, celery, herbs, and spices.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
By Isabella Beeton · From a historical cookbook (Project Gutenberg) · 18 ingredients
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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 ↓

Hessian Soup

16 persons

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the head

  1. Clean the head, rub it with salt and water, and soak it for 5 hours in warm water.

  2. Simmer it in the water till tender.

Make the soup

  1. Put it into a pan and let it cool; skim off all the fat.

  2. Take out the head, and add the vegetables cut up small, and the peas which have been previously soaked.

  3. Simmer them without the meat, till they are done enough to pulp through a sieve.

Finish and serve

  1. Add the seasoning, with pieces of the meat cut up.

  2. Give one boil, and serve.

Nutrition, whole recipe (rough)

372Calories
13 gProtein
2 gFat
82 gCarbs

Counts 11 of 13 ingredients. The other 2 aren't in our nutrition table and add nothing above, so the real totals are higher.

What these numbers assume: 11 portions
IngredientPortion assumedkcal
Potato1 medium (173g) baked161
Pea1/2 cup (72g)62
Onion1 medium (110g)44
Turnip1 medium (122g)34
Carrot1 medium (61g)25
Tomato1 medium (123g)22
Clove1 tsp ground (2g)7
Celery1 stalk (40g)6
Black Pepper1 tsp ground (2.3g)6
Allspice1 tsp ground (1.9g)5
Salt1 tsp (6g)0
Waternot in our table0
Macenot 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 Isabella Beeton. Recipe from a historical cookbook (Project Gutenberg).

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. Celery + carrottop 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. Celery + turniptop 2% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together4,418 recipes

    Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).

  4. Potato + oniontop 3% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together9,023 recipes

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

  5. Carrot + potatotop 4% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together3,107 recipes

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

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

What each ingredient does

Split peas
Break down during simmering and pulping, thickening the soup and giving it body.
Potatoes
Their starch softens and helps thicken the soup as they cook.
Onions
Their sugars and aromatic compounds add savoury sweetness and depth to the broth.
Carrots
Natural sugars add mild sweetness and soft body as they cook.
Turnips
Soften during simmering, adding earthy flavour and body to the soup.
Celery
Aromatic compounds add savoury, herbal depth to the broth.

The step that matters

Skim off all the fat after cooling. Fat rises and firms as the liquid cools, so it lifts off easily. Leaving it in makes the finished soup greasy and heavy on the palate.

Swap the mace

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (peas, celery, ketchup, carrot, turnip, potato, onion):

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

Fit is the average pairing score against peas, celery, ketchup, carrot, turnip, potato, 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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