Skip to main content
Soup

Canned Roast Beef Soup

A soup made with roast beef, water, salt, pepper, and optional beef extract and powdered bread.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 6 ingredients
Jump to recipe ↓

Why it works: Beef and pepper are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 10% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 18,971 recipes. Both carry 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine, which smells earthy, pea. The science ↓

Canned Roast Beef Soup

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Cut the roast beef into small pieces.

  2. Add the beef to the cold water in a pot.

Simmer and strain

  1. Bring to a boil, then reduce heat and simmer gently for 30 minutes.

  2. Skim off the fat and strain the soup, pressing to extract all meat juice and gelatin.

Season and finish

  1. Season with salt and pepper to taste.

  2. If desired, add beef extract and powdered hard bread for extra flavor.

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. Beef + peppertop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together18,971 recipes

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

  2. Beef + breadtop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together4,032 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-acetyl-1-pyrroline (popcorn, roasted).

  3. Pepper + breadtop 16% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together20,964 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).

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

What each ingredient does

Roast beef
Provides the main flavor and, as it simmers, the meat juice and gelatin that give the broth body.
Cold water
Extracts flavor and gelatin from the beef slowly as it heats, forming the soup base.
Beef extract
Adds concentrated beefy flavor to the soup.
Hard bread
Powdered bread thickens the soup slightly and adds body.

The step that matters

Skim off the fat and simmer gently. Gentle simmering keeps the broth clear, and boiling hard emulsifies fat into it. Skimming removes the fat before straining so the soup tastes clean and rich rather than greasy.

“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.

You might also like

Indian Spiced Potato Soup with Tofu and SpinachIndian Spiced Potato Soup with Tofu and Spinach448 recipesClear Carrot and Bottle Gourd SoupClear Carrot and Bottle Gourd Soup65 recipesMock Bisque SoupMock Bisque Soup51 recipesCream of Asparagus SoupCream of Asparagus Soup42 recipes