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Beef Soup

A hearty soup of potatoes, tomatoes, okra, and beef bone, sweetened with sugar and baking soda.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 8 ingredients
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Why it works: Tomato and okra work together. They rank in the top 3% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 327 recipes. Both carry damascenone, which smells apple, rose. The science ↓

Beef Soup

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Boil the sliced potatoes in a pot until tender.

  2. In separate vessels, boil the tomatoes and dried okra until tender.

Combine and simmer

  1. Combine all ingredients in one pot with the beef bone and add water.

  2. Boil for 20 minutes, then add baking soda, sugar, and rice if desired.

  3. Season with coarse sea salt 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.

  1. Tomato + okratop 3% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together327 recipes

    Shared aroma: damascenone (apple, rose).

  2. Potato + tomatotop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together2,798 recipes

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

  3. Potato + okratop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together88 recipes

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

  4. Okra + ricetop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together250 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-methoxy-4-vinylphenol (clove, smoky).

  5. Tomato + ricetop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together3,065 recipes

    Shared aroma: trans-2-nonenal (cardboard, fatty).

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

What each ingredient does

Potatoes
Soften into the broth and thicken it as they break down during boiling.
Tomatoes
Add acidity, body and a rich, savory-sweet flavor to the broth.
Dried okra
Releases natural thickening starch, giving the soup a more viscous texture.
Baking soda
Raises the pH of the broth, which softens the vegetables and mellows the tomato acidity.
Sugar
Balances the acidity of the tomatoes and rounds out the flavor.
Beef bone
Contributes gelatin and meaty flavor to the broth as it simmers.

The step that matters

Adding the baking soda. Baking soda raises the broth's pH, which can soften vegetables and dull tomato tartness. Too much can leave a soapy taste and mushy texture, so add it measured and after the vegetables are already tender.

Swap the okra

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (potato, tomato, sugar, rice, beef):

  1. Capsicumfits better
  2. Carrotfits about as well
  3. Okrathe original
  4. Asparagusfits about as well

Fit is the average pairing score against potato, tomato, sugar, rice, beef. 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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