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Beef Soup

A hearty beef soup with vegetables and toasted bread.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 11 ingredients
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Why it works: Turnip and leek match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 1,046 recipes. Both carry coumarin, which smells sweet, hay. The science ↓

Beef Soup

Ingredients

Directions

Make the soup

  1. Place the beef in a large pot with cold water and a little salt.

  2. Bring to a boil over medium heat, skimming off any fat that rises.

  3. Once the fat has stopped rising, add the carrots, turnips, leeks, celery, parsley, and cloves.

  4. Grate the red carrot and sprinkle it on top.

  5. Continue to simmer gently until ready to serve.

Serve

  1. Place the toasted bread in a tureen.

  2. Pour the soup over the bread, straining it through a sieve.

  3. Alternatively, serve the soup with the vegetables included.

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 + leektop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together1,046 recipes

    Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).

  2. Carrot + parsleytop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together8,053 recipes

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

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

    Shared aroma: myristicin (spice, warm).

  4. Carrot + turniptop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together8,002 recipes

    Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).

  5. Celery + parsleytop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together6,810 recipes

    Shared aroma: 4'-methylacetophenone (bitter almond).

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

What each ingredient does

Lean fresh beef
Provides the main meat flavor and body as it simmers into the broth.
Carrots
Add sweetness and aroma to the broth as they soften during simmering.
Turnips
Contribute mild sweetness and a soft texture to the soup.
Toasted bread
Soaks up broth, adding body and a toasty texture when served.

The step that matters

Skimming the fat as the water heats. Fat that rises during the initial boil can make the broth greasy and cloudy if left in. Removing it early keeps the soup clear and clean-tasting.

Swap the clove

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (beef, carrot, turnip, leek, celery, parsley, bread):

  1. Marjoramfits better
  2. Thymefits better
  3. Tarragonfits better
  4. Clovethe original

Fit is the average pairing score against beef, carrot, turnip, leek, celery, parsley, bread. 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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