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A Hash Soup

A soup made from roast beef remains, potatoes, herbs, onion, and walnut catsup.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 9 ingredients
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Why it works: Potato and onion are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 3% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 9,023 recipes. Both carry 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine, which smells earthy, pea. The science ↓

A Hash Soup

Ingredients

Directions

Make the broth

  1. Combine the meat, bones, herbs, onion, and water in a large pot.

  2. Simmer for two hours to extract the nourishment.

  3. Strain the mixture.

  4. Cool the strained mixture.

  5. Remove the fat from the cooled mixture.

Finish the soup

  1. Rub the mashed potatoes through a colander into the pot.

  2. Season the pot with salt and pepper.

  3. Heat the soup again.

  4. Stir in the floured butter.

  5. Boil for one minute.

  6. Add the walnut catsup.

  7. Pour the soup into a tureen.

  8. If you have leftover soup, add it when incorporating the potatoes.

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. Potato + oniontop 3% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together9,023 recipes

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

  2. Beef + oniontop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together17,092 recipes

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

  3. Beef + potatotop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,052 recipes

    Shared aroma: sotolon (curry, maple).

  4. Potato + peppertop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together8,305 recipes

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

  5. Beef + peppertop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked 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

Roast beef remains
Provides the meat and bones that flavour the broth.
Potatoes
Mashed and pushed through into the pot, they thicken the soup and add body.
Butter
Rolled in flour and stirred in, it enriches the soup and helps thicken it.
Walnut catsup
Adds a dark, savoury, tangy aroma and depth of flavour.

The step that matters

Removing the fat from the cooled mixture. Fat that is not skimmed off stays on the surface and makes the soup greasy. Cooling lets the fat solidify on top so it lifts off cleanly.

Swap the walnut

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (beef, meat, potato, onion, pepper, butter, flour):

  1. Beansfits better
  2. Sesamefits better
  3. Peanutfits better
  4. Walnutthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against beef, meat, potato, onion, pepper, butter, flour. 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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