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Portable Soup

A hearty soup made from veal, beef, ham, butter, anchovies, mace, celery, carrots, and cayenne pepper, simmered for hours.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 9 ingredients
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Why it works: Celery and carrot match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 10,173 recipes. Both carry myristicin, which smells spice, warm. The science ↓

Portable Soup

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the meat

  1. Layer the meat with butter, anchovies, and mace in a large cauldron.

  2. Add the chopped celery and carrots.

  3. Cover and cook on moderate heat until the gravy begins to draw.

  4. Cover the meat with water.

Make the gravy

  1. Boil gently for 4 hours.

  2. Strain the mixture through a fine sieve into a clean pan until reduced to one-third.

  3. Strain the extracted gravy into a pan.

  4. Boil gently until it thickens.

  5. Season with cayenne.

Dry and store

  1. Pour into dishes to a thickness of 1 inch.

  2. Dry the dishes in the sun.

  3. Store in tight boxes.

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. Celery + carrottop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together10,173 recipes

    Shared aroma: myristicin (spice, warm).

  2. Celery + peppertop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together16,012 recipes

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

  3. Carrot + peppertop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together14,555 recipes

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

  4. Beef + peppertop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together18,971 recipes

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

  5. Beef + carrottop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together6,606 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

Veal
Breaks down into gelatin, giving the finished soup its body and firm set.
Beef
Adds deep meaty flavour and extra gelatin to the gravy as it simmers.
Butter
Adds richness and carries flavour through the long cooking of the meat.
Anchovies
Melt into the stock, adding savoury depth without a fishy taste.
Celery
Contributes aromatic, savoury flavour to the gravy during the long simmer.
Carrots
Add natural sweetness and body to the gravy as they cook down.

The step that matters

Boil gently for 4 hours. A hard boil can make the gravy cloudy and greasy, while a gentle simmer lets collagen slowly convert to gelatin and keeps the stock clear. Too much heat can also reduce it unevenly.

Swap the mace

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (veal, beef, ham, butter, celery, carrot, pepper):

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

Fit is the average pairing score against veal, beef, ham, butter, celery, carrot, 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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