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Vegetable Soup

A hearty soup made with beef, bones, salt, and assorted vegetables simmered for several hours.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 5 ingredients
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Vegetable Soup

Why it works: Turnip and parsnip match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 590 recipes. Both carry coumarin, which smells sweet, hay. The science ↓

Vegetable Soup

Ingredients

Directions

Make the broth

  1. Place the beef and soup bone in a large pot with the cold water and salt.

  2. Cook for 5.5 to 6 hours.

  3. Skim off any foam that forms.

  4. After 4 to 4.5 hours, strain the soup through a colander.

  5. Return the good meat to the pot.

  6. Discard bones and gristle.

Add the vegetables

  1. Wash the vegetables.

  2. Chop the vegetables as needed.

  3. Add the vegetables to the pot.

  4. Simmer gently until tender.

  5. Stir occasionally to prevent sticking.

  6. Remove the cooked vegetables.

  7. Mash them.

  8. Return them to the soup.

Finish and serve

  1. Boil for 1 minute.

  2. Season lightly.

  3. 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.

Photo for illustrative purposes only · Contact us to use it

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. Turnip + parsniptop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together590 recipes

    Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).

  2. Carrot + parsniptop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together1,097 recipes

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

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

    Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).

  4. Turnip + cabbagetop 2% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together897 recipes

    Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).

  5. Onion + potatotop 3% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together9,023 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

Lean beef
Provides rich meat flavor and tender bite as it simmers into the broth.
Soup bone
Releases gelatin and marrow flavor into the broth, giving it body and depth.
Assorted vegetables
Add sweetness, texture and bulk, with starchy types thickening the soup as they break down.

The step that matters

Skimming the foam. Foam from the beef and bones contains impurities that cloud the broth and taste bitter if left in. Skimming early keeps the soup clear and clean-flavored.

Swap the cabbage

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (beef, onion, potato, carrot, turnip, parsnip, corn):

  1. Leekfits better
  2. Beetrootfits better
  3. Okrafits better
  4. Cabbagethe original

Fit is the average pairing score against beef, onion, potato, carrot, turnip, parsnip, corn. 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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