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Beef-soup with Vegetables

A hearty soup made with beef, carrots, potatoes, onion, celery, salt, and pepper.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 8 ingredients
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Why it works: Carrot and celery match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 10,173 recipes. Both carry myristicin, which smells spice, warm. The science ↓

Beef-soup with Vegetables

Ingredients

Directions

The book gives no cooking times; the times in the steps were added in transcription, so check for doneness rather than trusting the clock.

Prepare the soup

  1. Combine beef and water in a large pot.

  2. Bring the mixture to a boil.

  3. Add carrots, potatoes, onion, and celery.

  4. Season with salt and pepper.

Simmer and serve

  1. Simmer for 1.5 to 2 hours until beef is tender.

  2. Remove the beef, shred it, and return it to the pot.

  3. Serve hot.

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 + celerytop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together10,173 recipes

    Shared aroma: myristicin (spice, warm).

  2. Potato + oniontop 3% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together9,023 recipes

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

  3. Carrot + potatotop 4% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together3,107 recipes

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

  4. Celery + peppertop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together16,012 recipes

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

  5. Carrot + peppertop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together14,555 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 the main protein; slow simmering breaks down its connective tissue so it becomes tender.
Potatoes
Starch that softens during simmering, thickening the broth slightly and giving the soup body.
Carrots
Add natural sweetness and firm texture that holds up through long simmering.
Onion
Adds savory depth and aroma to the broth as it cooks.
Celery
Contributes aroma and a mild, fresh vegetable flavor to the broth.

The step that matters

Simmer until the beef is tender. Beef needs a long, gentle simmer so its connective tissue breaks down into gelatin. Boiling hard can toughen the meat, so keep the pot at a gentle simmer and test for tenderness before shredding.

Swap the onion

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (beef, carrot, potato, celery, pepper):

  1. Tomatofits about as well
  2. Capsicumfits about as well
  3. Parsnipfits about as well
  4. Onionthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against beef, carrot, potato, celery, 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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