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Rich Brown Soup

A hearty beef soup simmered with cloves, spices, and wine.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 8 ingredients
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Why it works: Clove and nutmeg match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 8,686 recipes. Both carry estragole, which smells anise, licorice. The science ↓

Rich Brown Soup

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the beef

  1. Stick the cloves into the beef.

  2. Season the beef with salt, pepper, mace, and nutmeg.

Stew and finish

  1. Pour the water over the beef and stew slowly for 5 to 6 hours, skimming well.

  2. When the meat is in shreds, strain it and return the liquid to the pot.

  3. Add the wine and simmer until reduced to 3 quarts or until dinner time.

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. Clove + nutmegtop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together8,686 recipes

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

  2. Mace + nutmegtop 4% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together6,557 recipes

    Shared aroma: myristicin (spice, warm).

  3. Clove + peppertop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together17,451 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl octanoate (fruity, wine).

  4. Clove + macetop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together8,400 recipes

    Shared aroma: methyleugenol (clove, spice).

  5. Pepper + nutmegtop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together13,015 recipes

    Shared aroma: 4'-methylacetophenone (bitter almond).

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

What each ingredient does

Lean fresh beef
Provides the meat that breaks into shreds and gives the broth its rich, savory flavor.
Cloves
Adds a warm, pungent aroma that infuses the beef as it cooks.
Mace
Contributes a delicate, warm spice aroma to the seasoned meat.
Nutmeg
Adds a sweet, warm spice note that rounds out the broth's aroma.
Claret or port wine
Adds acidity and depth, and its reduction concentrates the broth's flavor.

The step that matters

Stew slowly and skim well. A gentle simmer keeps the beef tender and stops the liquid from boiling hard, which would toughen the meat. Skimming removes the foam and fat that rise to the surface, so the broth stays clear and clean-tasting.

Swap the mace

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (beef, clove, pepper, nutmeg, port wine):

  1. Cinnamonfits better
  2. Allspicefits better
  3. Marjoramfits better
  4. Macethe original

Fit is the average pairing score against beef, clove, pepper, nutmeg, port wine. 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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