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Beef and Vegetable Soup

A hearty soup made with beef, vegetables, rice, and herbs simmered in broth.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 10 ingredients
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Why it works: Carrot and celery match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 10,173 recipes. Both carry myristicin, which smells spice, warm. The science ↓

Beef and Vegetable Soup

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Break any bones on hand.

  2. Place the bones in the bottom of a soup kettle and add the diced meat on top of the bones.

  3. Pour in 4 quarts of cold water.

  4. Set the kettle over the fire.

  5. Bring the soup slowly to a boil.

  6. Skim the surface carefully until the broth is clear.

  7. Wash the rice in a colander under cold water.

  8. Prepare the vegetables by peeling and dicing them into ¼ inch pieces.

Simmer and serve

  1. Add the vegetables, rice, salt, pepper, and bouquet of herbs to the soup.

  2. Let the soup simmer steadily for 2 hours.

  3. Add boiling water as needed to maintain 4 quarts.

  4. Check the seasoning.

  5. Serve in a soup tureen, removing all bones 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 their aromas overlap, and how often cooks already put them together.

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

    Shared aroma: myristicin (spice, warm).

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

    Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).

  3. Turnip + celerytop 2% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together4,418 recipes

    Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).

  4. Celery + tomatotop 4% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together3,377 recipes

    Shared aroma: 4'-methylacetophenone (bitter almond).

  5. Celery + peppertop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together16,012 recipes

    Shared aroma: 4'-methylacetophenone (bitter almond).

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

What each ingredient does

Soup meat
Gives the soup its beefy flavour and, as it simmers, savoury body.
Rice
Thickens the broth slightly as its starch releases during simmering.
Tomatoes
Add acidity and body, rounding out the broth's flavour.
Carrot
Contributes sweetness and colour as it softens in the broth.
Onion
Adds savoury aroma and depth as it softens in the broth.

The step that matters

Skim the surface carefully until the broth is clear. Skimming removes coagulated proteins and fat that rise as the broth heats. Removing them early keeps the broth clear and prevents a greasy, cloudy result.

Swap the onion

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (carrot, turnip, celery, meat, rice, tomato, pepper):

  1. Parsnipfits better
  2. Capsicumfits better
  3. Okrafits better
  4. Onionthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against carrot, turnip, celery, meat, rice, tomato, pepper. 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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