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Baking

Baked Soup

A hearty soup made by baking beef, veal, ham, onions, carrots, and peas in a jar with water and seasonings.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 10 ingredients
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Why it works: Carrot and pepper match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 6% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 14,555 recipes. Both carry 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine, which smells earthy, pea. The science ↓

Baked Soup

Oven, in the book's wordsA moderate oven

Ingredients

Directions

The book says “a moderate oven”. The 350°F (175°C) in the steps is the modern equivalent, not the book's own figure.

Prepare the jar

  1. Place the chopped ham in the bottom of a large oven‑safe jar.

  2. Layer with sliced onions, carrots, some green peas, and sago, then add beef or veal.

  3. Pack the vegetables and meat in alternate layers, seasoning each with pepper and salt.

  4. Pour in 6 quarts of water, if the jar can hold it, and cover tightly.

  5. Seal the edge with a paste of flour and water to keep in the steam.

Bake

  1. Set the jar in a dripping pan filled with hot water and bake in a 350°F (175°C) oven for 6 hours, replenishing the water in the pan as needed.

Serve and store

  1. After 6 hours, dip out the desired amount of soup and let it cool to remove the fat.

  2. Heat the soup in a saucepan just to boiling, then pour into a tureen.

  3. Add 1 quart of boiling water and a little salt to the remaining contents in the jar, cover, and store in a cool place as stock.

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

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

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

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

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

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

  4. Carrot + peastop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,994 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-isobutyl-3-methoxypyrazine (green bell pepper, earthy).

  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

Beef
Provides rich meaty flavor and body as it slowly releases juices into the soup.
Veal
Adds tender meat and gelatin that help give the soup body.
Lean ham
Contributes salty, savory flavor to the broth.
Onions
Add sweetness and aromatic depth as they cook down.
Sago
Thickens the soup as its starch gelatinizes during long cooking.
Green peas
Add sweetness and soft texture to the vegetable layers.

The step that matters

Sealing the jar tightly. A tight seal keeps steam and moisture inside during the six-hour bake, so the liquid concentrates into flavorful soup rather than evaporating and drying out the meat and vegetables.

Swap the peas

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

  1. Beansfits better
  2. Lentilsfits about as well
  3. Peasthe original
  4. Sesamefits about as well

Fit is the average pairing score against beef, ham, veal, onion, carrot, 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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