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Veal Soup with Vegetables

A hearty veal broth simmered with cabbage, potatoes, carrots, celery, onions, and optional tomatoes, turnip, and corn.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 12 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 10,173 recipes mention both. Both carry myristicin, which smells spice, warm. The science ↓

Veal Soup with Vegetables

Ingredients

Directions

Make the broth

  1. Place the knuckle of veal in a large pot with cold water.

  2. Heat the water and add the salt once it is warm.

  3. Skim the surface carefully as it begins to boil.

  4. If using, add the red pepper.

  5. Reduce heat and let it cook slowly for 3 hours, adding hot water as needed.

Add the vegetables

  1. After 3 hours, add the cabbage, potatoes, carrot, celery, and onions.

  2. If desired, also add tomatoes, turnip, and corn.

  3. Cook for an additional hour until the vegetables are tender.

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 aroma chemistry they share, and how many recipes mention both.

  1. Carrot + celerytop 1% of all pairs
    Aroma overlapstrong
    Mentioned together10,173 recipes

    Shared aroma: myristicin (spice, warm).

  2. Potato + oniontop 3% of all pairs
    Aroma overlapmoderate
    Mentioned together9,023 recipes

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

  3. Celery + tomatotop 4% of all pairs
    Aroma overlapmoderate
    Mentioned together3,377 recipes

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

  4. Potato + carrottop 4% of all pairs
    Aroma overlapstrong
    Mentioned together3,107 recipes

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

  5. Pepper + celerytop 5% of all pairs
    Aroma overlapstrong
    Mentioned together16,012 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

Knuckle of veal
Gives the broth its meaty flavor and body as it simmers slowly for hours.
Potatoes
Starch that thickens the broth slightly and gives the soup substance.
Onions
Build savory, sweet depth as they soften into the broth.
Cabbage
Adds bulk and a mild, slightly sweet vegetable flavor to the soup.

The step that matters

Skim the surface as it begins to boil. Foam and impurities rising from the meat cloud the broth and can taint its flavor. Skimming early keeps the soup clear and clean-tasting.

Flavor stand-ins for the tomato

The recipe marks tomato as optional. How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (veal, pepper, cabbage, potato, carrot, celery, onion):

  1. Turnipbetter flavor fit
  2. Leekbetter flavor fit
  3. Parsnipbetter flavor fit
  4. Tomatothe original

Fit is the average pairing score against veal, pepper, cabbage, potato, carrot, celery, onion. Candidates are from the same food group and used in at least 100 recipes. This compares flavor only: it does not check the job the ingredient does in the dish (bulk, moisture, acidity, structure).

“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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