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Soup Making

A clear broth made from lean meat, bones, and vegetables simmered for hours.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 10 ingredients
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Why it works: Carrot and parsley match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 8,053 recipes. Both carry 2,4-decadienal, which smells seaweed. The science ↓

Soup Making

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Chop the bones into small pieces and cut the meat into small chunks.

  2. In a dedicated kettle, add the meat and bones, then cover with cold soft water.

  3. Let the mixture stand for several hours.

Simmer

  1. Heat gradually and keep simmering.

  2. Simmer for at least two hours to extract flavors and longer for nutrients from the bones.

  3. Do not remove the scum; it contains valuable albumen.

  4. One hour before serving, add onions, carrots, celery, summer savory, and parsley for flavor.

  5. Add salt and pepper just before serving.

  6. Strain the soup.

  7. Skim off the fat before serving.

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. Carrot + parsleytop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together8,053 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2,4-decadienal (seaweed).

  2. Carrot + celerytop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together10,173 recipes

    Shared aroma: myristicin (spice, warm).

  3. Summer savory + parsleytop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together241 recipes

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

  4. Celery + parsleytop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together6,810 recipes

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

  5. Parsley + peppertop 2% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together34,122 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

Lean meat
Releases flavor and savory body into the broth as it simmers.
Bones
Release gelatin and minerals over long simmering, giving the broth body and richness.
Onions
Add aromatic sweetness and savory flavor to the broth.
Carrots
Add mild sweetness and flavor to the broth.
Celery
Adds aromatic, savory flavor to the broth.

The step that matters

Keep the simmer gentle and steady. Boiling vigorously makes the broth cloudy and emulsifies fat into it, while a gentle simmer keeps it clear. Long, slow heat is what draws flavor and gelatin from the bones.

Swap the onion

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (meat, beef, carrot, celery, summer savory, parsley, pepper):

  1. Turnipfits better
  2. Parsnipfits better
  3. Capsicumfits about as well
  4. Onionthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against meat, beef, carrot, celery, summer savory, parsley, 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.

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