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Ox-cheek Soup

A hearty soup made with ox cheek, ham or bacon, vegetables, herbs, and broth, served with a French roll crust.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 16 ingredients
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Ox-cheek Soup

Why it works: Parsnip and carrot 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

Start the stock

  1. Place the ham in the bottom of a large pot with the butter.

  2. Wash the ox-cheek clean and break its bones.

  3. Add the ox-cheek to the pot.

  4. Chop the vegetables and add them to the pot.

  5. Set the pot over low heat for 30 minutes.

  6. Add the water and simmer gently until reduced to 4 quarts.

Finish the soup

  1. Remove the meat from the pot.

  2. Strain the soup into a clean pot.

  3. Thicken the soup with flour.

  4. Add a head of sliced celery and simmer until the celery is tender.

  5. Add browning if needed.

  6. Cut the meat into small pieces.

  7. Pour the soup over the meat.

Serve

  1. Serve with the crust of 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. Parsnip + carrottop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together1,097 recipes

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

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

    Shared aroma: myristicin (spice, warm).

  3. Parsnip + celerytop 3% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together561 recipes

    Shared aroma: myristicin (spice, warm).

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

    Shared aroma: cuminaldehyde (Spicy, cumin).

  5. Parsnip + clovetop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together306 recipes

    Shared aroma: myrcene (balsamic, herbaceous).

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

What each ingredient does

Ox-cheek
Long simmering breaks down its connective tissue, giving the meat and broth body.
Butter
Fat that carries flavor from the pot and helps the aromatics brown gently.
Ham or bacon
Adds salty, savory depth as its fat and flavor release into the broth.
Onions
Sweetness and savory aroma develop as they cook slowly in the fat.
Celery
Adds a fresh, herbal aroma and softens into the soup.
Carrots
Contribute sweetness and body to the broth as they cook down.

The step that matters

Thicken the soup with flour. Flour lumps if added dry, so it should be blended smoothly into some liquid first. Starch grains swell when heated, and the soup only thickens evenly once they are fully dispersed and heated through.

Swap the mace

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

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

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