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A Medley Soup

A soup made from calf's head, green peas, tomato sauce, and diced meat, simmered and strained.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 5 ingredients
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Why it works: Peas and tomato match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 4% of all ingredient pairs, and 1,058 recipes mention both. Both carry 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine, which smells earthy, pea. The science ↓

The recipe

Ingredients

Directions

Make the stock

  1. Cut the cold calf's head into dice, saving half for later.

  2. Place the remaining pieces and the skeleton of the duck in a soup pot and cover with 3 quarts of water.

  3. Simmer for 3 hours until reduced by one-third, then strain.

Finish the soup

  1. Return the liquid to the fire and add ½ cup of green peas and ½ cup of tomato sauce (or leftover succotash and squash).

  2. If using raw peas, simmer for 30 minutes; if using cooked vegetables, simmer for 10 minutes.

  3. Add the diced meat, bring to a boil, and 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. Peas + tomatotop 4% of all pairs
    Aroma overlapstrong
    Mentioned together1,058 recipes

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

  2. Tomato + meattop 8% of all pairs
    Aroma overlapmoderate
    Mentioned together1,431 recipes

    Shared aroma: 3-methylbutanol (malty, whiskey).

  3. Peas + meattop 9% of all pairs
    Aroma overlapstrong
    Mentioned together572 recipes

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

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

What each ingredient does

Cold calf's head
Supplies meat and gelatin that give the broth body and a rich mouthfeel.
Green peas
Add sweetness and a tender, soft texture to the finished soup.
Tomato sauce
Adds acidity and tomato flavour that brightens the rich broth.

The step that matters

Timing the vegetables. Raw peas need about 30 minutes to become tender, while cooked vegetables only need 10. Cooked vegetables simmered too long break down and turn mushy, while undercooked raw peas stay starchy and firm.

Flavor stand-ins for the peas

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (tomato, meat):

  1. Beansbetter flavor fit
  2. Chickpeaabout as good a flavor fit
  3. Lima beansabout as good a flavor fit
  4. Peasthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against tomato, meat. 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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