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Shin of Beef Soup

A hearty soup made from shin of beef, vegetables, barley, and a flour thickener.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 12 ingredients
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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 ↓

Shin of Beef Soup

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the meat

  1. Have the butcher saw the shin bone into 2-inch pieces.

  2. Wash the meat in cold water.

  3. Mix salt and pepper, rub it into the meat, and place it in a soup pot.

  4. Add enough water to match the weight of the meat in quarts.

Simmer the soup

  1. Set over moderate heat until boiling, then skim off any scum.

  2. Cover and simmer gently for 2 hours.

  3. Skim again and add the carrot, turnip, leek, parsley, potatoes, and barley.

  4. Cover and simmer for 1 hour.

  5. Mix the flour with water to make a thickening, stir it in, and cover for 15 minutes.

Serve

  1. Serve the soup with the meat, garnished with parsley, and offer mustard and ketchup on the side.

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

    Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).

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

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

  3. Leek + barleytop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together142 recipes

    Shared aroma: 1-octen-3-ol (mushroom, earthy).

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

    Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).

  5. Pepper + parsleytop 2% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together34,122 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

Shin of beef
Slow simmering breaks down connective tissue, making the meat tender and enriching the broth.
Pearl barley
Its starch thickens the broth and adds body as it cooks.
Potatoes
They soften during simmering and add starch that gives the soup substance.
Wheat flour
Mixed with water and stirred in, it thickens the broth at the end.

The step that matters

Skim off the scum after boiling. Foam rising from the meat contains impurities and proteins that can cloud the broth and give it an off flavor if left in. Removing it keeps the soup clear and clean-tasting.

Swap the potato

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (beef, pepper, carrot, turnip, leek, parsley, barley):

  1. Parsnipfits better
  2. Shallotfits better
  3. Chivefits better
  4. Potatothe original

Fit is the average pairing score against beef, pepper, carrot, turnip, leek, parsley, barley. 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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