Name: Another, Cheap Soup
Ingredients: 1 ox cheek; 2 pecks (about 16 cups) of potatoes, peeled and diced; ¼ peck (about 2 cups) of onions, chopped; ¾ pound of coarse sea salt; 1½ ounces of black pepper; 90 pints (about 11.25 gallons) of water

Why it works: Potato and onion are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 3% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 9,023 recipes. Both carry 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine, which smells earthy, pea. The science ↓

Another, Cheap Soup

Ingredients

1 ox cheek
2 pecks (about 16 cups) of potatoes, peeled and diced
¼ peck (about 2 cups) of onions, chopped
¾ pound of coarse sea salt
1½ ounces of black pepper
90 pints (about 11.25 gallons) of water

Directions

Make the soup

In a large pot, combine the ox cheek, potatoes, onions, salt, and pepper.
Add the water and bring to a boil over low heat.
Simmer until the soup is reduced to 60 pints.

Serve

Serve 1 pint of soup with a small piece of meat for a hearty meal.

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.

Potato + oniontop 3% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together9,023 recipes

Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).
Potato + peppertop 9% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together8,305 recipes

Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).
Onion + peppertop 11% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together68,474 recipes

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

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

What each ingredient does

Ox cheek: Provides the main meat; slow simmering softens its connective tissue, adding body and rich flavor.
Potatoes: Break down as they cook, releasing starch that thickens the soup and gives it body.
Onions: Soften and sweeten as they simmer, building the savory base of the broth.
Black pepper: Adds a sharp, aromatic bite that seasons the broth as it reduces.

The step that matters

Simmering until reduced to 60 pints. As water evaporates, the soup thickens and its flavors and salt concentrate. Stopping too early leaves it thin and bland, while reducing too far makes it salty and dense.

Swap the onion

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (potato, pepper):

Capsicumfits better
Carrotfits better
Spinachfits better
Onionthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against potato, 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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Another, Cheap Soup