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A Rich Soup

A hearty soup made with beef, veal, mutton, ham, giblets, vegetables, and seasonings.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 15 ingredients
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Why it works: Beef and chicken match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 2% of all ingredient pairs, and 2,147 recipes mention both. Both carry 2-furfurylthiol, which smells coffee, roasted. The science ↓

The recipe

Ingredients

Directions

Make the broth

  1. Combine the beef, veal, mutton, ham, giblets, and any cold meat in a soup pot.

  2. Add 6 quarts of water, carrot, turnip, onion, potatoes, and pepper.

  3. Bring to a boil over high heat, then reduce to a gentle simmer.

  4. Let it simmer until bedtime, then strain through a colander and cool.

Finish and serve

  1. Three hours before serving, remove the fat and return the jelly to the pot.

  2. Add salt, celery seed, and vermicelli if desired.

  3. Heat over moderate heat and boil for 30 minutes before serving.

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 aroma chemistry they share, and how many recipes mention both.

  1. Beef + chickentop 2% of all pairs
    Aroma overlapstrong
    Mentioned together2,147 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-furfurylthiol (coffee, roasted).

  2. Turkey + chickentop 3% of all pairs
    Aroma overlapstrong
    Mentioned together690 recipes

    Shared aroma: (z)-4-decenal (green, must).

  3. Beef + muttontop 4% of all pairs
    Aroma overlapstrong
    Mentioned together2,373 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl 2-methylbutyrate (fruity, apple).

  4. Beef + turkeytop 4% of all pairs
    Aroma overlapstrong
    Mentioned together248 recipes

    Shared aroma: trans-2-decenal (waxy, orange).

  5. Beef + vealtop 4% of all pairs
    Aroma overlapmoderate
    Mentioned together3,784 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2,6-nonadienal (cucumber, green).

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

What each ingredient does

Beef shin
Breaks down during long simmering to enrich the broth with body and savory flavor.
Mutton neck
Contributes collagen that softens into gelatin, giving the broth a jelly-like body.
Ham knuckle
Adds salty, smoky depth and collagen that helps the broth set into jelly.
Potatoes
Soften and slightly thicken the broth while adding starch and mild sweetness.

The step that matters

Simmer gently, do not boil hard. A gentle simmer draws flavor and gelatin from the meat while keeping the broth clear. Vigorous boiling emulsifies fat into the liquid and makes it cloudy and greasy.

Flavor stand-ins for the carrot

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (beef, veal, mutton, ham, turkey, chicken, meat):

  1. Tomatobetter flavor fit
  2. Onionbetter flavor fit
  3. Potatoabout as good a flavor fit
  4. Carrotthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against beef, veal, mutton, ham, turkey, chicken, meat. Candidates are from the same food group and used in at least 100 recipes. This compares flavor only: it does not check the job the ingredient does in the dish (bulk, moisture, acidity, structure).

“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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