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Soup

Shdt of Beef Soup

A soup made by simmering shin of beef with root vegetables, herbs, potatoes and flour dumplings.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 17 ingredients
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Why it works: Marjoram and thyme match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 2,225 recipes. Both carry terpineol, which smells pine, woody. The science ↓

Shdt of Beef Soup

Ingredients

Directions

Make the broth

  1. Crack the bone of the shin of beef, remove tough skin, wash, and boil in a kettle with water and salt for about 4 hours until tender.

  2. Remove the beef and add more salt if needed, along with onions, turnips, carrot, sugar, marjoram, thyme, and red pepper to the broth.

Finish the soup

  1. Thicken the soup with flour mixed with water to a thick cream consistency, stirring while boiling.

  2. About 45 minutes before serving, add the quartered potatoes to the soup.

  3. Just before serving, add finely chopped parsley to the soup.

Make the dumplings

  1. For dumplings, mix flour, butter, salt, and enough water to form a dough. Shape into small balls, about the size of a nutmeg, and boil for 10 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.

  1. Marjoram + thymetop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together2,225 recipes

    Shared aroma: terpineol (pine, woody).

  2. Turnip + carrottop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together8,002 recipes

    Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).

  3. Carrot + marjoramtop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together687 recipes

    Shared aroma: cuminaldehyde (Spicy, cumin).

  4. Turnip + marjoramtop 2% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together367 recipes

    Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).

  5. Carrot + thymetop 3% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together4,563 recipes

    Shared aroma: cuminaldehyde (Spicy, cumin).

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

What each ingredient does

Shin of beef
Slow boiling in water breaks down connective tissue, giving the broth body and tender meat.
Flour
Starch swells when boiled with liquid, thickening the soup to a creamy consistency.
Potatoes
Starchy body that softens during cooking and adds substance to the soup.
Butter
Adds fat and richness to the dumpling dough, making it tender.
Onions
Release sweet, savoury aromatics into the broth as they cook.

The step that matters

Thicken the soup with flour mixed with water. Flour added directly to hot liquid clumps; mixing it with water first to a smooth cream and stirring while boiling lets the starch disperse and thicken evenly.

Swap the onion

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

  1. Parsnipfits better
  2. Leekfits better
  3. Shallotfits better
  4. Onionthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against beef, turnip, carrot, sugar, marjoram, thyme, 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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