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Portable Soup

A thick beef soup that is cooled, fat removed, reheated, and poured into small pots to set into cakes.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 7 ingredients
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Why it works: Beef and onion are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 7% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 17,092 recipes. Both carry 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine, which smells earthy, pea. The science ↓

Portable Soup

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the stock

  1. Place the beef, shin of beef, cow-heel, and knuckles of veal in a large stewpan.

  2. Add enough water to barely cover the meat and include the onions and seasoning.

  3. Stew the meat until it is tender and falls apart.

  4. Strain the mixture and cool it in the coldest place available.

  5. Once cold, remove the fat from the top.

Reduce and set

  1. Boil the remaining liquid in a stewpan without a lid over high heat for at least 8 hours, stirring frequently.

  2. Pour the soup into a large basin and boil enough water in the stewpan to surround the basin without bubbling into it.

  3. Keep the water boiling until the soup thickens to a good consistency.

  4. Pour the finished soup into small jelly pots or saucers to form cakes when cooled.

  5. Store in dry, cool places in tin canisters.

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. Beef + oniontop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together17,092 recipes

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

  2. Beef + vealtop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together3,784 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2,6-nonadienal (cucumber, green).

  3. Veal + oniontop 17% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together6,841 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2,4-decadienal (seaweed).

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

What each ingredient does

Beef
Provides the main meat flavour and gelatin-rich body as it stews.
Cow-heel
Adds gelatin, which helps the cooled stock set firm.
Knuckles of veal
Contribute gelatin and savoury depth to the stock.
Onions
Add sweetness and aromatic flavour to the stock.

The step that matters

Boiling down the stock for at least 8 hours. Long, gentle reduction concentrates flavour and body; if the soup is not thickened enough, the cakes will not set firmly when cooled. Stirring frequently helps prevent scorching on the base of the pan.

Swap the onion

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (beef, veal):

  1. Onionthe original
  2. Tomatofits about as well
  3. Carrotfits less well
  4. Potatofits less well

Fit is the average pairing score against beef, veal. 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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