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Soup

Gravy Soup

A hearty soup made with ham, beef, veal, onions, cloves, turnips, and carrots simmered in water.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 7 ingredients
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Why it works: Turnip and carrot match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 8,002 recipes. Both carry coumarin, which smells sweet, hay. The science ↓

Gravy Soup

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Cut the ham into thin slices and lay them at the bottom of a large stewpan or stockpot.

  2. Add the lean beef and knuckle of veal, breaking the bones and laying them on the meat.

  3. Stick the cloves into one onion, peel both onions, and slice the second onion.

  4. Wash and clean the turnips and carrots.

Simmer

  1. Add all ingredients to the pot and cover with water.

  2. Bring to a boil, then reduce heat and simmer for several hours.

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. Turnip + carrottop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together8,002 recipes

    Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).

  2. Clove + carrottop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together5,873 recipes

    Shared aroma: cuminaldehyde (Spicy, cumin).

  3. Onion + turniptop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together7,585 recipes

    Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).

  4. Clove + turniptop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together2,233 recipes

    Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).

  5. Onion + carrottop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together21,601 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

Lean beef
Provides rich meaty flavor and body as its proteins and collagen break down during long simmering.
Knuckle of veal
Adds gelatin from its bones and connective tissue, giving the broth body and a silky mouthfeel.
Lean ham
Contributes salty, savory depth that seasons the broth as it simmers.
Onions
Release sweetness and aromatic compounds as they cook, rounding out the broth's flavor.
Carrots
Add natural sweetness and earthy flavor to the broth as they soften.
Turnips
Add a mildly sweet, peppery note and soften into the soup during simmering.

The step that matters

Bring to a boil, then reduce heat and simmer for several hours. A boil makes the broth cloudy and can toughen the meat, while a gentle simmer keeps it clear and lets collagen slowly convert to gelatin for body.

Swap the clove

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (ham, beef, veal, onion, turnip, carrot):

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

Fit is the average pairing score against ham, beef, veal, onion, turnip, carrot. 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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