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Beef Soup

A hearty beef soup with vegetables and barley, simmered for several hours.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 13 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 Soup

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the beef

  1. Crack the bone of the beef into small pieces.

  2. Wash the beef pieces.

  3. Place the beef in a kettle with cold water and bring to a boil.

Make the soup

  1. Boil for about 2 hours until tender.

  2. Season with salt and pepper.

  3. Boil for 1 hour longer.

  4. Add the minced carrot, turnips, rice or barley, celery, and summer savory.

  5. After 15 minutes, add the potatoes.

  6. Boil for another 30 minutes.

Finish and serve

  1. Remove the meat from the soup. Take out the bones. Place the meat on a dish.

  2. Garnish with parsley.

  3. Serve with made mustard and catsup.

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 + summer savorytop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together42 recipes

    Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).

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

    Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).

  5. Carrot + potatotop 4% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together3,107 recipes

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

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

What each ingredient does

Shin of beef
Provides the main meat and, with the bone, rich flavour as it simmers.
Rice or pearl barley
Thickens the broth slightly and adds a soft, starchy body.
Potatoes
Soften during simmering and add starch that gives the soup body.
Turnips
Add mild sweetness and soft texture after long simmering.
Carrot
Adds natural sweetness and colour to the broth.

The step that matters

Adding the potatoes after 15 minutes. Potatoes break down if they simmer too long, turning mushy and clouding the broth. Adding them late keeps the pieces intact while the soup finishes cooking.

Swap the summer savory

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

  1. Parsleyfits better
  2. Marjoramfits better
  3. Thymefits better
  4. Summer savorythe original

Fit is the average pairing score against beef, pepper, carrot, turnip, rice, celery, potato. 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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