Name: Beef Soup
Ingredients: 4 to 5 pounds beef shank; water (enough for soup); 4 to 5 potatoes, chopped; 6 small onions, chopped; 1 tablespoon rice; optional: cabbage, chopped; optional: celery, chopped; salt to taste; pepper to taste

Why it works: Potato and onion are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 3% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 9,023 recipes. Both carry 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine, which smells earthy, pea. The science ↓

Beef Soup

Ingredients

Directions

In the morning, place the beef shank in a kettle with enough water for soup.
Boil slowly for several hours.
One hour before serving, add the chopped potatoes, onions, rice, and optional cabbage and celery.
Continue to boil until ready to serve.
Remove the bones and strain the vegetables if you prefer a clear soup.
Season with salt and pepper to taste.

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.

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.

Potato + oniontop 3% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together9,023 recipes

Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).
Celery + peppertop 5% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together16,012 recipes

Shared aroma: 4'-methylacetophenone (bitter almond).
Cabbage + peppertop 5% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together4,081 recipes

Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).
Cabbage + celerytop 6% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together1,840 recipes

Shared aroma: 4'-methylacetophenone (bitter almond).
Potato + celerytop 7% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together2,047 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 shank: Slow boiling draws flavor and gelatin from the bone and meat into the broth.
Potatoes: Starch that softens during cooking and thickens the broth slightly, adding body.
Rice: Released starch helps give the broth a little body and thickness.

Swap the cabbage

The recipe marks cabbage as optional. How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (beef, potato, onion, rice, celery, pepper):

Carrotfits better
Tomatofits better
Capsicumfits better
Cabbagethe original

Fit is the average pairing score against beef, potato, onion, rice, celery, pepper. 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.