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Ox-cheek Soup

A hearty soup made from ox cheek, ham, celery, onions, carrots, parsnip, mace, and vermicelli, served over a French roll.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 11 ingredients
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Ox-cheek Soup

Why it works: Carrot and parsnip match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 1,097 recipes. Both carry 2-isobutyl-3-methoxypyrazine, which smells green bell pepper, earthy. The science ↓

Ox-cheek Soup

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Break the bones and wash the ox cheek thoroughly.

  2. Place it in a large stew pan with butter, fleshy side down.

  3. Add ham, celery, onions, carrots, parsnip, and mace.

Make the soup

  1. Cook over moderate heat for 15 minutes.

  2. Add warm water and simmer until reduced to 2 quarts.

  3. Remove the cheek and strain the soup clear from the vegetables.

  4. Add boiled celery and scalded vermicelli to the soup.

  5. Boil for 10 minutes.

Serve

  1. Serve over a French roll.

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. Carrot + parsniptop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together1,097 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-isobutyl-3-methoxypyrazine (green bell pepper, earthy).

  2. Celery + carrottop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together10,173 recipes

    Shared aroma: myristicin (spice, warm).

  3. Celery + parsniptop 3% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together561 recipes

    Shared aroma: myristicin (spice, warm).

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

Ox cheek
Provides rich, gelatin-laden meat that enriches the broth as it simmers.
Butter
Fat that gently softens the vegetables and carries flavor at the start.
Lean ham
Adds savory, salty depth to the broth.
Onions
Build sweetness and aromatic flavor as they cook down into the soup.
Vermicelli
Thickens the soup slightly and gives it a soft, starchy body.

The step that matters

Simmering down to 2 quarts. Reducing the warm water concentrates flavor from the cheek, ham and vegetables. Simmering gently rather than boiling hard keeps the broth clear and prevents the meat from breaking apart.

Swap the mace

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (butter, ham, celery, onion, carrot, parsnip):

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

Fit is the average pairing score against butter, ham, celery, onion, carrot, parsnip. 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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