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A Stew Soup

A hearty stew soup made with beef, ham, veal, carrots, turnips, onions, herbs, barley, and seasonings.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 13 ingredients
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Why it works: Carrot and turnip are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 2% of all ingredient pairs, and 8,001 recipes mention both. Both carry coumarin, which smells sweet, hay. The science ↓

The recipe

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Cut the meat into strips.

  2. Slice the vegetables.

Brown the meat

  1. Heat the dripping in a soup pot.

  2. Add the beef.

  3. Add a layer of vegetables.

  4. Add the ham.

  5. Add more vegetables.

  6. Add the veal.

  7. Add the remaining vegetables.

  8. Add 1 cup of cold water.

  9. Cover the pot.

  10. Heat very slowly until the meat has a brown glaze, being careful not to burn it.

Make the stock

  1. Pour in 6 quarts of water.

  2. Cook steadily for at least 3 hours.

  3. Strain the soup.

  4. Remove the scraps of meat.

  5. Puree the vegetables into the soup.

  6. Reserve 2 quarts of stock with the meat for tomorrow.

  7. Let the remaining soup cool.

  8. Skim off the fat.

Finish and serve

  1. Season the soup.

  2. Boil the soup.

  3. Add the soaked ½ cup of Scotch barley.

  4. Simmer for half an hour.

  5. Serve.

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 aroma chemistry they share, and how many recipes mention both.

  1. Carrot + turniptop 2% of all pairs
    Aroma overlapmoderate
    Mentioned together8,001 recipes

    Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).

  2. Beef + oniontop 3% of all pairs
    Aroma overlapmoderate
    Mentioned together17,091 recipes

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

  3. Carrot + peppertop 3% of all pairs
    Aroma overlapstrong
    Mentioned together14,555 recipes

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

  4. Carrot + oniontop 4% of all pairs
    Aroma overlapstrong
    Mentioned together21,599 recipes

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

  5. Beef + peppertop 4% of all pairs
    Aroma overlapstrong
    Mentioned together18,971 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

Lean beef
Provides the main meat flavor and, once browned, a rich glaze.
Lean ham
Adds savory, salty depth to the stock.
Lean veal
Contributes gelatin-rich body and a mild, tender meat flavor.
Carrots
Add sweetness and body when pureed into the soup.
Turnips
Add earthy flavor and thicken the soup when pureed.
Scotch barley
Adds chewy texture and thickens the soup as it cooks.

The step that matters

Heat very slowly until the meat has a brown glaze. Browning meat builds deep flavor through the Maillard reaction, but high heat can scorch the proteins and sugars before the surface colors evenly, leaving a bitter taste in the stock.

Flavor stand-ins for the mace

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

  1. Celerybetter flavor fit
  2. Parsleybetter flavor fit
  3. Marjorambetter flavor fit
  4. Macethe original

Fit is the average pairing score against beef, ham, veal, carrot, turnip, onion, pepper. Candidates are from the same food group and used in at least 100 recipes. This compares flavor only: it does not check the job the ingredient does in the dish (bulk, moisture, acidity, structure).

“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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