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Ox-cheek Soup

A hearty soup made from ox cheeks, vegetables, and a thickened broth.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 16 ingredients
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Ox-cheek Soup

Why it works: Turnip and leek match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 1,046 recipes. Both carry coumarin, which smells sweet, hay. The science ↓

Ox-cheek Soup

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the ox cheeks

  1. Blanch the ox cheeks in boiling water, remove gills, and chop the bones.

  2. Cut the flesh into medium-sized pieces, leaving the cheek part whole.

Make the soup

  1. Combine all ingredients in a stewpan and let it stew for 6 hours, skimming regularly.

  2. Remove the meat and strain the broth through a fine sieve into another stewpan.

  3. Mix the flour with 1 pint of cold broth and stir into the strained broth over heat until boiling.

  4. Add the finely chopped celery and sherry, and simmer until the celery is tender.

  5. Add browning for color.

Serve

  1. Cut the meat into small square pieces, keep warm in a tureen, and pour the soup over 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.

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. Turnip + leektop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together1,046 recipes

    Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).

  2. Parsley + thymetop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together9,057 recipes

    Shared aroma: cuminaldehyde (Spicy, cumin).

  3. Carrot + parsleytop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together8,053 recipes

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

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

    Shared aroma: myristicin (spice, warm).

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

    Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).

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

What each ingredient does

Ox cheeks
Long stewing breaks down collagen, giving the meat and broth body and richness.
Flour
Thickens the broth as it heats and comes to a boil, giving it body.
Carrots
Release sweetness and aromatic flavor into the broth during the long stew.
Sherry
Adds acidity and aromatic depth to the finished soup.
Finely chopped celery
Softens into the soup, adding savory aroma and tender vegetable texture.

The step that matters

Skimming during the 6-hour stew. Skimming regularly removes foam and fat that rise during simmering, keeping the broth clear and clean-tasting over the long cook.

Swap the celery

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (carrot, turnip, leek, parsley, thyme, flour, sherry):

  1. Marjoramfits better
  2. Celerythe original
  3. Tarragonfits about as well
  4. Capersfits about as well

Fit is the average pairing score against carrot, turnip, leek, parsley, thyme, flour, sherry. 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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