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Mock Chile Con Carne Soup

A beef-based soup with tomatoes, beans, potatoes, onions, ketchup, bay leaf, cloves, and red pepper.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 11 ingredients
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Why it works: Onion and potato 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 ↓

Mock Chile Con Carne Soup

Ingredients

Directions

  1. In a large pot, combine ground beef, suet, and plenty of water.

  2. Add the can of tomatoes, chopped onions, kidney beans, and diced potatoes.

  3. Cook the soup until the ingredients are tender.

  4. Stir in the ketchup, bay leaf, cloves, and red pepper.

  5. Simmer for a few more minutes 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. Onion + potatotop 3% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together9,023 recipes

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

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

    Shared aroma: ethyl octanoate (fruity, wine).

  3. Tomato + potatotop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together2,798 recipes

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

  4. Beef + oniontop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together17,092 recipes

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

  5. Tomato + peppertop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together17,923 recipes

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

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

What each ingredient does

Ground beef
Provides the main meat flavor and body of the soup.
Kidney beans
Add substance and a firm, starchy texture to the soup.
Potatoes
Soften during cooking and thicken the soup slightly with their starch.
Tomatoes
Add liquid, acidity and savory flavor to the broth.
Ketchup
Adds sweetness and tang that balances the acidity of the tomatoes.

The step that matters

Simmer until the potatoes are tender before adding the ketchup and spices. Potatoes need sustained heat in liquid to soften fully, and the record does not give a time for this stage, so cooking until tender is the cue to watch. Adding the ketchup and spices afterward keeps their flavors fresh rather than cooked down.

Swap the kidney beans

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (beef, tomato, onion, potato, ketchup, clove, pepper):

  1. Beansfits better
  2. Chickpeafits better
  3. Sesamefits better
  4. Kidney beansthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against beef, tomato, onion, potato, ketchup, clove, 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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