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Rich Brown Soup

A beef soup simmered slowly with wine, spices, onions, and cloves, reduced to a rich brown broth.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
By Jacqueline Harrison Smith (ed.) · From a historical cookbook (Project Gutenberg) · 12 ingredients
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Why it works: Clove and nutmeg match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 8,686 recipes. Both carry estragole, which smells anise, licorice. The science ↓

Rich Brown Soup

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the meat

  1. Take 6 lbs. of the lean of fresh beef cut from the bone, stick it over with 4 doz. cloves, season with a teaspoon of salt, the same of pepper, the same of mace and a grated nutmeg.

  2. Slice ½ doz. onions, fry them in butter, chop and spread them over the meat.

  3. After you have put it in the stew pot, pour in five quarts of water and stew very slowly five or six hours.

Strain and finish

  1. When the meat is dissolved into shreds, strain and return the liquid to the pot.

  2. Add 6 wine glasses of claret or port wine.

  3. Simmer again slowly for about half an hour.

  4. When the soup is reduced to 3 quarts it is done.

Nutrition, whole recipe (rough)

25Calories
0 gProtein
1 gFat
4 gCarbs

Counts 4 of 6 ingredients. The other 2 aren't in our nutrition table and add nothing above, so the real totals are higher.

What these numbers assume: 4 portions
IngredientPortion assumedkcal
Nutmeg1 tsp ground (2.2g)12
Clove1 tsp ground (2g)7
Black Pepper1 tsp ground (2.3g)6
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 Jacqueline Harrison Smith (ed.). 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. Clove + nutmegtop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together8,686 recipes

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

  2. Mace + nutmegtop 4% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together6,557 recipes

    Shared aroma: myristicin (spice, warm).

  3. Clove + peppertop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together17,451 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl octanoate (fruity, wine).

  4. Clove + macetop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together8,400 recipes

    Shared aroma: methyleugenol (clove, spice).

  5. Pepper + nutmegtop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together13,015 recipes

    Shared aroma: 4'-methylacetophenone (bitter almond).

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

What each ingredient does

Beef (in the method)
Provides the main flavour and, as it breaks down, the body of the broth.
Claret
Adds acidity and wine flavour, deepening the colour and taste of the soup.
Onions (in the method)
Fried in butter first, they add browned sweetness and savoury depth to the broth.

The step that matters

Stewing slowly until the meat dissolves. Long, gentle simmering lets collagen in the beef break down into gelatin, giving body and tender shreds. Boiling hard can toughen the meat and cloud the broth.

Swap the mace

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (clove, pepper, nutmeg):

  1. Cinnamonfits better
  2. Allspicefits better
  3. Cardamomfits better
  4. Macethe original

Fit is the average pairing score against clove, pepper, nutmeg. 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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