Name: A Shin Op Beef Soup
Ingredients: 5 to 6 quarts water; 1 shin of beef; ½ white cabbage, finely chopped; 2 turnips, chopped; 3 carrots, chopped; 3 onions, chopped; pepper to taste; coarse sea salt to taste; raised dough (optional)

Why it works: Turnip and carrot match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 8,002 recipes. Both carry coumarin, which smells sweet, hay. The science ↓

A Shin Op Beef Soup

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the beef

If possible, boil the beef a day before making the soup.
If not, crack the shin and boil it in 5 to 6 quarts of water for 5 to 6 hours, skimming often.

Make the soup

Add the chopped cabbage, turnips, carrots, and onions to the pot, along with pepper and salt.
Boil for 2 hours.
Half an hour before serving, remove the bone and gristle from the soup.
If using raised dough, form a dozen small balls the size of a nutmeg. Drop them into the soup.
Boil for an additional 30 minutes.

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.

Turnip + carrottop 1% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together8,002 recipes

Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).
Cabbage + turniptop 2% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together897 recipes

Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).
Turnip + oniontop 5% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together7,585 recipes

Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).
Cabbage + peppertop 5% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together4,081 recipes

Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).
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 shin: Gives the soup its rich body and flavor as collagen and gelatin release during long simmering.
White cabbage: Adds sweetness and substance as it softens into the broth during long cooking.
Turnips: Contribute mild sweetness and starchy body to the soup as they cook through.
Carrots: Add natural sweetness and color while softening into the broth.
Onions: Build savory depth and sweetness as they break down during simmering.

The step that matters

Skimming the beef broth. Skimming often while the shin boils removes foam and loose fat and impurities that would otherwise cloud the broth and taste greasy.

Swap the onion

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

Leekfits better
Parsnipfits better
Broccolifits better
Onionthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against beef, cabbage, turnip, carrot, 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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A Shin Op Beef Soup