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Ox-cheek Soup

A hearty soup made from an ox cheek, vegetables, herbs, and seasonings, simmered slowly and thickened with flour.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
By Isabella Beeton · From a historical cookbook (Project Gutenberg) · 44 ingredients
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Ox-cheek Soup

Why it works: Ketchup and sauce match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 1,099 recipes. Both carry ethanol, which smells alcoholic, ethereal. The science ↓

Ox-cheek Soup

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the cheek

  1. Clean the ox cheek, break the bones, and soak it overnight in salt and water (if desired).

  2. The next day, wipe it dry and place it in a stewpan.

  3. Add 2 oz. butter and 3 or 4 slices of lean ham or bacon to the bottom of the stewpan, then place the cheek on top.

  4. Cut the parsnip, carrots, onions, celery, mace, cloves, herbs, bay leaf, and other vegetables small, and add them to the stewpan.

  5. Add 5 quarts of water, bring to a boil, skim, then simmer gently until the meat is tender (about ¼ hour or until reduced to 4 quarts).

  6. Remove the fleshy part of the cheek, strain the soup into a clean stewpan.

Make the soup

  1. Thicken the soup with 2 dessertspoonfuls of flour, add a head of sliced celery, and simmer until the celery is tender.

  2. If the colour is not good, add a tablespoonful of browning.

  3. Slice and fry 3 onions in a little butter and flour, and add them to the gravy.

  4. Add 2 whole onions, each with 3 cloves, 3 turnips quartered, 2 carrots sliced, a bay leaf, a head of celery, a bunch of herbs, cayenne, black pepper, and salt to taste.

  5. Let the mixture stew until all vegetables are tender.

Finish and serve

  1. Take out the cheek, divide into pieces, skim and strain the gravy, and thicken 1½ pint of it with butter and flour.

  2. Add 2 tablespoonfuls of chili vinegar, 2 tablespoonfuls of mushroom ketchup, 2 tablespoonfuls of port wine, and 2 tablespoonfuls of Harvey's sauce, and bring to a boil.

  3. Add the pieces of cheek, let the whole boil up, and serve hot.

  4. Serve with the crust of a French roll in the tureen; a glass of sherry improves the soup.

Nutrition, whole recipe (rough)

1135Calories
55 gProtein
34 gFat
148 gCarbs

Counts 19 of 22 ingredients. The other 3 aren't in our nutrition table and add nothing above, so the real totals are higher.

What these numbers assume: 19 portions
IngredientPortion assumedkcal
Flour1 cup (125g) all-purpose455
Pork100g cooked242
Butter1 tbsp (14g)102
Egg1 large egg (50g)78
Parsnip1/2 cup (78g)55
Onion1 medium (110g)44
Turnip1 medium (122g)34
Port Wine2 tbsp cooking wine (30ml)25
Carrot1 medium (61g)25
Tomato1 medium (123g)22
Mushroom1/2 cup sliced (35g)15
Chili1 tsp (2.7g)8
Clove1 tsp ground (2g)7
Celery1 stalk (40g)6
Cayenne1 tsp (1.8g)6
Black Pepper1 tsp ground (2.3g)6
Vinegar1 tbsp (15ml) distilled3
Bay Leaf1 leaf (0.6g)2
Salt1 tsp (6g)0
Waternot in our table0
Saucenot 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.

Photo for illustrative purposes only · Contact us to use it

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. Ketchup + saucetop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together1,099 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

  2. Celery + parsniptop 3% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together561 recipes

    Shared aroma: myristicin (spice, warm).

  3. Mushroom + port winetop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together570 recipes

    Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).

  4. Vinegar + port winetop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together598 recipes

    Shared aroma: 4-ethyl-2-methoxyphenol (smoky, clove).

  5. Celery + mushroomtop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,006 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

Ox cheek
Provides the meat and rich gelatine that give the soup body and savoury depth.
Celery
Adds aromatic flavour and a tender vegetable texture to the soup.
Flour
Thickens the gravy so it has a fuller, smoother body.
Onions
Build sweetness and savoury depth as they soften and brown in butter.
Mushroom ketchup
Adds concentrated savoury, umami flavour to the finished soup.
Port wine
Adds sweetness and rounded depth of flavour to the soup.

The step that matters

Thickening the gravy with flour and butter. Flour must be cooked into the butter and stirred smoothly into hot liquid, otherwise it forms lumps and leaves a raw floury taste instead of a smooth, thick gravy.

Swap the parsnip

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (ham, celery, vinegar, mushroom, ketchup, port wine, sauce):

  1. Shallotfits better
  2. Mustardfits better
  3. Capsicumfits better
  4. Parsnipthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against ham, celery, vinegar, mushroom, ketchup, port wine, sauce. 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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