Skip to main content
Main

Soups

A simple broth made from lean meat, onions, carrots, and seasonings.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 6 ingredients
Jump to recipe ↓

Why it works: Carrot and pepper match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 6% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 14,555 recipes. Both carry 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine, which smells earthy, pea. The science ↓

Soups

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Remove all fat from the meat.

  2. Place the meat in a pot with cold water.

Simmer

  1. Simmer slowly for 3 to 5 hours, removing scum as it rises.

  2. Keep the pot covered to retain flavor.

  3. After 3 hours, add fried onions and carrots.

  4. If needed, add boiling water to maintain liquid level.

Strain

  1. Strain the stock into an earthen jar once done.

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 + peppertop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together14,555 recipes

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

  2. Onion + carrottop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together21,601 recipes

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

  3. Onion + peppertop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together68,474 recipes

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

  4. Onion + buttertop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together42,912 recipes

    Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).

  5. Meat + buttertop 16% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together7,594 recipes

    Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).

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

What each ingredient does

Meat
Releases its flavor and gelatin into the water, giving the broth body and savour.
Onions
Fried brown in butter, they add sweetness and deep colour and aroma to the broth.
Carrots
Add natural sweetness and a mild vegetable aroma to the broth.

The step that matters

Skimming scum during the simmer. Scum is coagulated protein and impurities that rise to the surface. Removing it keeps the broth clear and clean-tasting, while a hard boil would cloud it.

Swap the carrot

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (meat, onion, butter, pepper):

  1. Potatofits better
  2. Capsicumfits about as well
  3. Mustardfits about as well
  4. Carrotthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against meat, onion, butter, 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.

More meat broth recipes

Clear 10 See all 26 →

You might also like

Carrot SoupCarrot Soup134 recipesMeat CroquettesMeat Croquettes52 recipesMeatballsMeatballs37 recipesMince MeatMince Meat37 recipes