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Ox-CHEEK Soup

A hearty soup made from ox cheeks, onions, carrots, turnips, black peppers, cloves, and sago.

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

Why it works: Carrot and turnip 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 ↓

Ox-CHEEK Soup

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the meat

  1. Break the bones of the ox-cheeks and wash well with salt and water.

  2. Cover the cheeks with cold water.

  3. Bring to a boil.

  4. Discard the water.

Make the broth

  1. Fry the sliced onions.

  2. Add the onions to the pot with the meat, sliced carrots, and spices.

  3. Cover with 5 quarts of water.

  4. Bring to a slow boil.

  5. Skim often for four hours.

  6. Strain the broth.

  7. Remove the meat and bones.

  8. Season with coarse sea salt.

  9. Place the meat in a stock pot with half the broth.

  10. Refrigerate overnight.

Finish the soup

  1. Pulp the vegetables from the broth.

  2. Let it cool.

  3. Remove the fat.

  4. Reheat the broth.

  5. Season to taste.

  6. Add the sago that has soaked for two hours.

  7. Simmer until the soup is clear.

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 + turniptop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together8,002 recipes

    Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).

  2. Pepper + clovetop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together17,451 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl octanoate (fruity, wine).

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

    Shared aroma: cuminaldehyde (Spicy, cumin).

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

    Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).

  5. Carrot + peppertop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together14,555 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

Ox-cheeks
Break down into rich, tender meat and gelatin that give the broth body.
German sago
Thickens the broth and gives the soup a glossy, slightly gelled body as it cooks.
Onions
Fried first to build savory, caramelized depth in the broth.
Carrots
Add natural sweetness and aromatic flavor to the broth.

The step that matters

Skim often for four hours. Long, gentle simmering with frequent skimming removes foam and fat impurities, keeping the broth clear and clean-tasting rather than cloudy and greasy.

Swap the onion

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (carrot, turnip, pepper, clove):

  1. Parsnipfits better
  2. Leekfits better
  3. Beetrootfits better
  4. Onionthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against carrot, turnip, pepper, 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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