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Beef Soup

A clear beef soup made with beef, bones, water, salt, carrots, onions, leeks, and celery.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 8 ingredients
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Why it works: Carrot and celery match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 10,173 recipes. Both carry myristicin, which smells spice, warm. The science ↓

Beef Soup

Ingredients

Directions

Make the broth

  1. In a soup pot, combine cold water, beef, and bones.

  2. Bring to a boil.

  3. Add ½ cup cold water to help remove scum; skim the surface.

  4. Repeat skimming two more times until the broth is clear.

Simmer and serve

  1. Add the vegetables and return to a boil.

  2. Reduce heat and let simmer for 4 to 5 hours.

  3. Remove the vegetables before serving.

  4. Taste and add more salt if needed.

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

    Shared aroma: myristicin (spice, warm).

  2. Carrot + leektop 3% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together1,310 recipes

    Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).

  3. Leek + celerytop 4% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together1,093 recipes

    Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).

  4. Onion + leektop 4% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together1,326 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl butyrate (apple, fruity).

  5. Carrot + clovetop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together5,873 recipes

    Shared aroma: cuminaldehyde (Spicy, cumin).

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

What each ingredient does

Beef bones
Release gelatin and flavour into the broth during the long simmer, giving body.
Beef
Contributes savoury, meaty flavour to the broth as it simmers.
Onions
Add sweetness and aroma as they soften and release their flavour into the broth.
Leeks
Add a mild onion-like sweetness and aroma to the broth.
Carrots
Add gentle sweetness and colour to the broth.

The step that matters

Skimming the scum. Foam rising from the meat contains proteins and impurities that cloud the broth and taste bitter if left in. Skimming early and repeatedly keeps the broth clear and clean-flavoured.

Swap the clove

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (beef, carrot, onion, leek, celery):

  1. Parsleyfits better
  2. Thymefits better
  3. Marjoramfits better
  4. Clovethe original

Fit is the average pairing score against beef, carrot, onion, leek, celery. 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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Clear 34Brown 23Quick 12French 6Barley 5Economical 4 See all 245 →

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