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Flemish Soup

A hearty beef and potato soup simmered for hours with celery, onions, milk, and sugar.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 9 ingredients
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Flemish Soup

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 ↓

Flemish Soup

Ingredients

Directions

Make the first stock

  1. In a large pot, combine potatoes, celery, onions, beef, water, salt, and pepper.

  2. Bring to a boil and simmer for 3 hours.

  3. Add boiling milk or hot cream and sugar, stir well.

Make the glaze stock

  1. For glaze, use 6 pounds lean beef and part of a knuckle of veal, cut into small pieces.

  2. Add ½ pound lean ham (without the outer layer), 5 quarts water, 3 onions with cloves, 1 carrot, and 1 head of celery.

  3. Bring to a boil, skim, then simmer for 6 hours.

  4. Strain the stock and place in an earthen crock.

  5. Add back the meat and vegetables with 4 quarts boiling water and boil for 4 more hours.

  6. Strain again and combine stocks in a large pot.

Reduce and finish

  1. Boil uncovered until reduced to 3 pints, then transfer to a smaller pot and boil until thick and brown.

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.

Photo for illustrative purposes only · Contact us to use it

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. Potato + oniontop 3% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together9,023 recipes

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

  2. Celery + peppertop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together16,012 recipes

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

  3. Potato + celerytop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,047 recipes

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

  4. Onion + beeftop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together17,092 recipes

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

  5. Celery + oniontop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together18,518 recipes

    Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).

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

What each ingredient does

Shin of beef
Releases flavour and gelatin into the broth during long simmering.
Potatoes
Break down during simmering to thicken the soup body.
Celery
Adds aromatic vegetable flavour to the stock.
Milk or hot cream
Adds richness and softens the flavour of the soup.
Sugar
Adds a little sweetness that balances the savoury broth.

The step that matters

Boil until thick and brown. Reducing the stock slowly concentrates its flavour and body. Boiling too hard or for too short a time leaves it thin and pale, while over-reduction can scorch the bottom of the pot.

Swap the celery

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (potato, onion, beef, pepper, milk, sugar):

  1. Garlicfits about as well
  2. Cinnamonfits about as well
  3. Celerythe original
  4. Thymefits about as well

Fit is the average pairing score against potato, onion, beef, pepper, milk, sugar. 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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