Skip to main content
Main

Ox-cheek Soup

A hearty soup made with ox cheek, ham, butter, vegetables, and herbs, thickened with flour.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 17 ingredients
Jump to recipe ↓
Ox-cheek Soup

Why it works: Parsnip and carrot match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 1,097 recipes. Both carry 2-isobutyl-3-methoxypyrazine, which smells green bell pepper, earthy. The science ↓

Ox-cheek Soup

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Lay the ham and butter at the bottom of a large stewpan.

  2. Wash the ox cheek clean and break the bones of the ox cheek.

  3. Place the ox cheek on top of the ham.

  4. Chop the vegetables and add the chopped vegetables to the stewpan.

  5. Set the stewpan over low heat for 30 minutes.

  6. Add the water to the stewpan.

Make the soup

  1. Simmer gently until the liquid is reduced to 4 quarts.

  2. Remove the meat from the ox cheek.

  3. Strain the soup into a clean stewpan.

  4. Thicken the soup with flour.

  5. Add the sliced celery to the soup.

  6. Simmer until the soup is tender.

  7. If the soup lacks color, add a little browning.

Serve

  1. Cut the meat into small pieces.

  2. Pour the soup over the meat.

  3. Serve with the crust of a French roll.

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.

Photo for illustrative purposes only · Contact us to use it

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. Parsnip + carrottop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together1,097 recipes

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

  2. Carrot + celerytop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together10,173 recipes

    Shared aroma: myristicin (spice, warm).

  3. Parsnip + celerytop 3% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together561 recipes

    Shared aroma: myristicin (spice, warm).

  4. Carrot + clovetop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together5,873 recipes

    Shared aroma: cuminaldehyde (Spicy, cumin).

  5. Parsnip + clovetop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together306 recipes

    Shared aroma: myrcene (balsamic, herbaceous).

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

What each ingredient does

Ox-cheek
Gives the soup its meat and rich, gelatin-rich body as it simmers.
Butter
Adds fat and rich flavor to the base at the start of cooking.
Ham or bacon
Contributes savory, salty depth to the stock as it cooks.
Onions
Build sweetness and aromatic flavor in the stock as they soften.
Carrots
Add natural sweetness and body to the soup.
Flour (in the method)
Thickens the strained soup so it is more substantial.

The step that matters

Simmer gently until the liquid is reduced to 4 quarts. Gentle simmering draws flavor and gelatin from the bones and meat while reducing the liquid slowly. A hard boil can cloud the broth and toughen the meat.

Swap the mace

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (butter, ham, parsnip, carrot, onion, celery, clove):

  1. Parsleyfits better
  2. Thymefits better
  3. Marjoramfits better
  4. Macethe original

Fit is the average pairing score against butter, ham, parsnip, carrot, onion, celery, clove. 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.

You might also like

Carrot SoupCarrot Soup134 recipesCream of Celery SoupCream of Celery Soup113 recipesCelery StewCelery Stew25 recipesCelery CroquettesCelery Croquettes16 recipes