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Spanish Soup

A hearty beef and ham bone broth with rice, Brussels sprouts, and onion.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 7 ingredients
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Why it works: Beef and onion are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 7% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 17,092 recipes. Both carry 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine, which smells earthy, pea. The science ↓

Spanish Soup

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the meat

  1. Break the bones of the beef and ham into small pieces and tie the meat with string.

  2. Place the meat and bones in a large pot and add the cold water.

Simmer the soup

  1. Bring to a gentle boil, remove the scum, and add a little cold water to help the scum rise.

  2. Add black pepper, then simmer gently for 2.5 hours.

  3. Blanch the rice, then add it to the soup and boil for an additional hour.

  4. Half an hour before serving, add the Brussels sprouts and sliced onion.

Serve

  1. Remove the bones and meat from the soup, place the meat on a dish, and garnish with sprouts.

  2. Serve the soup hot in a tureen.

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. Beef + oniontop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together17,092 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).

  2. Rice + oniontop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together10,433 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2,4-decadienal (seaweed).

  3. Beef + peppertop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together18,971 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).

  4. Beef + ricetop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,265 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-acetyl-1-pyrroline (popcorn, roasted).

  5. Pepper + oniontop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together68,474 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

Shin of beef
Slow simmering breaks down its connective tissue, giving the broth body and tender meat.
Knuckle of ham
Its bones and meat add savory depth and richness to the broth during the long simmer.
Rice
Its starch thickens the soup slightly as it cooks.
Brussels sprouts
They add a mild, slightly bitter vegetable flavor and texture to the soup.
Onion
It adds sweetness and aromatic flavor as it softens in the broth.

The step that matters

Removing the scum. Skimming foam that rises after the first boil keeps the broth clear and clean-tasting. Adding a little cold water helps the impurities rise so they can be removed.

Swap the brussels sprouts

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (beef, ham, pepper, rice, onion):

  1. Potatofits better
  2. Carrotfits better
  3. Tomatofits better
  4. Brussels sproutsthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against beef, ham, pepper, rice, onion. 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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