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Beef Soup

A clear beef soup made with bones, onion, pepper, salt, tomato juice, and vermicelli.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 7 ingredients
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Why it works: Beef and onion are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 7% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 17,092 recipes. Both carry 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine, which smells earthy, pea. The science ↓

Beef Soup

Ingredients

Directions

Make the stock

  1. Prepare the stock a day before by placing the beef bones in a kettle with 2 quarts of cold water.

  2. Cook slowly for 2 to 3 hours, then strain and cool.

  3. The next day, remove all the fat from the stock.

Finish the soup

  1. Add ¼ onion, pepper, coarse sea salt, ¼ cup tomato juice, and a handful of broken vermicelli.

  2. Simmer for 15 to 20 minutes, skim out the onion, and serve.

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

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

  2. Pepper + tomatotop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together17,923 recipes

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

  3. Beef + tomatotop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together5,448 recipes

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

  4. Onion + tomatotop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together20,633 recipes

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

  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 bones
Release gelatin and flavour into the water during long cooking, giving the stock body and richness.
Vermicelli
Thin noodles that soften in the hot broth and add a light, starchy texture.
Tomato juice
Adds acidity and a savoury tang that brightens the rich stock.

The step that matters

Skimming the fat from the stock. Fat that is left in the stock floats on the broth and makes the soup greasy and heavy on the palate. Chilling the stock overnight lets the fat solidify on top so it can be lifted off cleanly.

Swap the onion

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

  1. Capsicumfits better
  2. Carrotfits better
  3. Potatofits better
  4. Onionthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against beef, pepper, tomato. 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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Clear 34Brown 23Quick 12French 6Barley 5Economical 4 See all 245 →

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