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Julienne Soup

A hearty beef soup with carrots, turnips, cabbage, corn, tomatoes, herbs, and seasonings, simmered for hours.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 10 ingredients
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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 ↓

Julienne Soup

Ingredients

Directions

Make the broth

  1. Combine the beef, herbs, and water in a large pot.

  2. Add well-cracked bones if available.

  3. Bring to a boil, then reduce heat to simmer for 5 to 6 hours, replenishing water as needed.

  4. One hour before serving, strain the soup.

  5. Return the meat and bones to the pot.

  6. Season well.

  7. Set aside some broth for later use and cool the rest.

  8. Remove the fat from the cooled broth.

  9. Return the broth to the pot.

Add vegetables and finish

  1. Add the vegetables, cut into shreds, and parboil for 10 minutes.

  2. Simmer gently for 30 minutes.

  3. Season to taste.

  4. Cook for 1 more minute.

  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 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. Turnip + cabbagetop 2% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together897 recipes

    Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).

  3. Cabbage + peppertop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together4,081 recipes

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

  4. Carrot + peppertop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together14,555 recipes

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

  5. Carrot + tomatotop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together3,606 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

Beef
Gives the broth its rich, meaty flavor as it simmers for hours.
Bones (in the method)
Release gelatin and body into the broth, giving it a fuller mouthfeel.
Carrots
Add natural sweetness and color as they soften in the broth.
Turnips
Contribute mild sweetness and a tender texture once cooked.
Cabbage
Adds bulk and a tender-crisp texture after brief parboiling.
Tomatoes
Add acidity and brightness that balance the rich broth.

The step that matters

Removing the fat from the cooled broth. Fat that is left in the broth stays greasy and can mute the flavor. Cooling the broth lets the fat rise and solidify on top, so it can be lifted off cleanly before the vegetables go in.

Swap the cabbage

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (beef, carrot, turnip, corn, tomato, pepper):

  1. Capsicumfits better
  2. Okrafits better
  3. Parsnipfits better
  4. Cabbagethe original

Fit is the average pairing score against beef, carrot, turnip, corn, tomato, pepper. 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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