Name: Beef Soup
Ingredients: 1 soup bone; spices to taste; ⅓ cup brandy; 2 tablespoons butter; 2 tablespoons browned flour; ¼ cup vermicelli; 1 grated carrot; 3 hard-boiled eggs

Why it works: Butter and flour are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 12% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 124,287 recipes. Both carry isobutyraldehyde, which smells malty, green. The science ↓

Beef Soup

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the broth

Boil the soup bone the day before you want to serve the soup.
Skim the grease off the broth the next day and melt the jelly.

Finish and serve

Add spices, brandy, butter, browned flour, vermicelli, and grated carrot to the broth.
Mash the hard-boiled eggs smooth and place them in a tureen.
Pour the soup over the mashed eggs and serve.

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.

Butter + flourtop 12% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together124,287 recipes

Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
Flour + carrottop 13% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together8,029 recipes

Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
Brandy + buttertop 15% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together5,127 recipes

Shared aroma: ethyl octanoate (fruity, wine).
Flour + eggtop 15% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together106,462 recipes

Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
Butter + eggtop 17% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together118,967 recipes

Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).

Butter and flour barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 124,287 recipes: they work on texture and structure more than aroma.

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

What each ingredient does

Browned flour: Thickens the broth and adds a toasted, nutty flavour.
Butter: Adds richness and a silky mouthfeel to the broth.
Hard-boiled eggs: Mashed into the tureen, they add body and a creamy texture to the soup.
Vermicelli: Adds starchy body and a soft, tender bite to the soup.
Brandy: Adds aromatic depth and a warm, boozy note to the broth.