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Brown Gravy Soup

A hearty beef and vegetable soup with brown gravy and vermicelli.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 9 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 ↓

Brown Gravy Soup

Ingredients

Directions

Brown the base

  1. In a large pot, fry the chopped onions in dripping until brown.

  2. Add the beef pieces and brown them, stirring frequently.

  3. Add the diced carrot, turnip, and celery (or celery seeds) to the pot.

  4. Pour in 3 quarts of water and stir in the pepper and salt.

Simmer and serve

  1. Simmer the mixture very slowly for 3 to 4 hours, skimming off any foam that rises.

  2. When ready to serve, boil the vermicelli in water, then drain it through a sieve.

  3. Add the drained vermicelli to the soup before serving.

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. Carrot + turniptop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together8,002 recipes

    Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).

  3. Turnip + celerytop 2% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together4,418 recipes

    Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).

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

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

  5. Onion + turniptop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together7,585 recipes

    Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).

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

What each ingredient does

Beef
Browning builds savory depth, and long simmering turns the meat tender and flavors the broth.
Onions
Frying until brown develops sweet, savory flavor and color that deepens the gravy-like broth.
Vermicelli
Thin pasta adds body and a starchy texture to the soup when added just before serving.

The step that matters

Skimming the foam during the long simmer. Foam contains coagulated proteins and impurities that rise as the meat cooks; removing it keeps the broth clear and clean-tasting over the 3 to 4 hour simmer.

Swap the onion

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

  1. Parsnipfits better
  2. Leekfits better
  3. Spinachfits better
  4. Onionthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against beef, carrot, turnip, 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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