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Beef Soup No. 1

A hearty beef soup with rice, beans, corn, turnip, cabbage, potatoes, tomatoes, and herbs.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 15 ingredients
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Why it works: Turnip and cabbage match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 2% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 897 recipes. Both carry coumarin, which smells sweet, hay. The science ↓

Beef Soup No. 1

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the beef

  1. Crack the bone of the beef shank in several places and wash it clean.

  2. Place the beef in a pot with the rice and fill with cold water.

  3. Cover the pot and set it over a brisk fire until it simmers.

Simmer

  1. Reduce heat to maintain a gentle simmer, skimming regularly.

  2. Add vegetables after 7 hours of slow boiling.

  3. In the last hour, add tomatoes and herbs.

Finish and serve

  1. Add boiled okras and let it boil once more before serving.

  2. Season with salt and red pepper before serving.

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. Turnip + cabbagetop 2% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together897 recipes

    Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).

  2. Lima beans + corntop 3% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together222 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2,3-pentanedione (butter, sweet).

  3. Corn + potatotop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together938 recipes

    Shared aroma: (e)-2-octenal (fatty, green).

  4. Potato + tomatotop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together2,798 recipes

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

  5. Rice + corntop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together933 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).

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

What each ingredient does

Beef shank
Long simmering breaks down the connective tissue and bone, enriching the broth with flavor and body.
Rice
Starch released as it cooks thickens the broth and adds body to the soup.
Lima beans
Starchy legumes that soften during long simmering, adding texture and substance.
Potatoes
Starch from the potatoes thickens the broth slightly and gives the soup heartiness.
Tomatoes
Add acidity and fresh flavor that brightens the rich, long-cooked broth.
Turnip
Adds mild sweetness and a tender texture after long simmering.

The step that matters

Reduce heat to a gentle simmer. A rolling boil toughens meat and makes the broth cloudy, while a gentle simmer keeps the beef tender and the broth clear. Skimming removes foam that would otherwise muddy the flavor.

Swap the cabbage

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (beef, rice, lima beans, corn, turnip, potato, tomato):

  1. Okrafits better
  2. Carrotfits better
  3. Asparagusfits better
  4. Cabbagethe original

Fit is the average pairing score against beef, rice, lima beans, corn, turnip, potato, tomato. 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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