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Hessian Soup

A hearty beef and vegetable soup with split peas, simmered in water.

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 ↓

Hessian Soup

Ingredients

Directions

Make the soup

  1. Cut the beef into slices and place it in a stewpan.

  2. Add the onions, carrots, potatoes, split peas, celery, whole pepper, and salt.

  3. Pour in the water gradually and bring to a boil.

  4. Reduce heat and simmer until the soup is reduced by half.

Serve

  1. If serving as a soup, strain off the vegetables.

  2. If not, serve as is.

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

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

  3. Carrot + potatotop 4% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together3,107 recipes

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

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

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

  5. 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

Shin of beef
Provides rich meat flavor and body as it cooks into the broth.
Split peas
Thicken the soup as they break down during long simmering.
Potatoes
Soften and add starch, helping to thicken the broth.
Onions
Add sweetness and aroma as they cook down into the broth.

The step that matters

Simmering until reduced by half. Reducing concentrates the flavor and thickens the soup, but simmering too hard can cloud the broth and overcook the vegetables. Keep it at a gentle simmer and watch the volume.

Swap the peas

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

  1. Beansfits better
  2. Chickpeafits better
  3. Lentilsfits better
  4. Peasthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against beef, onion, carrot, potato, 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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