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Ox-cheek Soup

A hearty soup made from ox cheeks, onions, carrots, turnips, peppercorns, cloves, and sago.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 9 ingredients
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Ox-cheek Soup

Why it works: Carrot and turnip match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 8,002 recipes. Both carry coumarin, which smells sweet, hay. The science ↓

Ox-cheek Soup

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the meat

  1. Break the bones of the ox cheeks.

  2. Wash the cheeks well with salt and water.

  3. Cover the cheeks with cold water.

  4. Bring the water to a boil.

  5. Discard the water.

Make the broth

  1. Fry the sliced onions.

  2. Add the onions to the pot with the meat, carrots, and spices.

  3. Cover the pot with 5 quarts of water.

  4. Bring the mixture to a slow boil.

  5. Skim the surface often for 4 hours.

  6. Strain the broth.

  7. Pick out the meat and bones.

  8. Season the broth with salt.

  9. Place the meat in a stock pot with half of the broth.

  10. Refrigerate the pot overnight.

Finish and serve

  1. Pulp the vegetables from the broth.

  2. Let the pulp cool.

  3. Remove the fat from the pulp.

  4. Reheat the broth.

  5. Season the broth to taste.

  6. Add the soaked sago.

  7. Simmer until clear.

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

    Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).

  2. Carrot + clovetop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together5,873 recipes

    Shared aroma: cuminaldehyde (Spicy, cumin).

  3. Onion + turniptop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together7,585 recipes

    Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).

  4. Turnip + clovetop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together2,233 recipes

    Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).

  5. Onion + carrottop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together21,601 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

Ox cheeks
Slow cooking breaks down the tough connective tissue, giving the meat and broth body.
German sago
Starch that thickens the broth and turns it clear and silky as it simmers.
Onions
Frying adds browned sweetness and savory depth to the broth.
Carrots
Release sweetness and body into the broth during long simmering.
Turnips
Add mild sweetness and earthy flavor to the broth as they cook down.

The step that matters

Skim the surface often for 4 hours. Foam and fat rising during a long simmer can cloud the broth and give it a greasy, impure taste. Regular skimming keeps the broth clear and clean-flavored.

Swap the onion

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (carrot, turnip, clove):

  1. Parsnipfits better
  2. Leekfits better
  3. Beetrootfits better
  4. Onionthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against carrot, turnip, clove. 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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