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Soup

Caxxed Roast Beef, Soup

A soup made by simmering cut roast beef in cold water, then straining the broth.

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

Caxxed Roast Beef, Soup

Ingredients

Directions

  1. Add the beef pieces to the cold water in a pot.

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

  3. Skim off the fat and strain the liquid, pressing to extract all meat juice and gelatin.

  4. Season with salt and pepper to taste.

  5. If desired, add beef extract for improved flavor.

  6. Optionally, stir in powdered hard-bread if rice or grains are unavailable.

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, through simmering, the meat juice and gelatin that give the broth body.
Cold water
Serves as the liquid that slowly draws flavor and gelatin out of the beef as it simmers.
Powdered hard-bread
Optionally thickens the soup, acting like grains or rice would by absorbing liquid.

The step that matters

Simmer gently for 30 minutes. A rolling boil makes the meat tough and cloudy, while gentle simmering keeps the broth clearer and lets collagen slowly break down into gelatin, giving body to the soup.

“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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