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Rich Beef Soup

A hearty beef soup with beans, tomatoes, okra, and corn, simmered slowly for hours.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 7 ingredients
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Why it works: Beans and okra share more aroma than cooks usually use. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 66 recipes. Both carry 2-isobutyl-3-methoxypyrazine, which smells green bell pepper, earthy. The science ↓

Rich Beef Soup

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the broth

  1. Crack the bones of the beef shank and place in a 2-gallon pot.

  2. Fill the pot with cold water and bring to a boil.

  3. Once boiling, reduce heat and simmer slowly on the back of the stove for 6 to 7 hours.

Finish the soup

  1. Skim off any foam and add the butter beans, tomatoes, and okra.

  2. Add the corn 30 minutes before serving.

  3. Season with salt and pepper to taste.

  4. Before serving, skim off all grease.

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. Beans + okratop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together66 recipes

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

  2. Beans + tomatotop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together2,713 recipes

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

  3. Beans + corntop 3% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together1,211 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2,3-pentanedione (butter, sweet).

  4. Tomato + okratop 3% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together327 recipes

    Shared aroma: damascenone (apple, rose).

  5. Tomato + corntop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together2,099 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).

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

What each ingredient does

Beef shank
Gives the broth its meaty flavour and body as it simmers for hours.
Butter beans
Add creamy texture and body, thickening the soup slightly as they cook.
Tomatoes
Contribute acidity and sweetness that balance the rich beef broth.
Okra
Releases natural starch that thickens the soup and gives it a silky texture.
Corn
Adds sweetness and a fresh bite that contrasts with the long-cooked ingredients.

The step that matters

Simmer slowly and skim the foam and grease. A gentle simmer over hours extracts flavour from the bones without clouding the broth. Skimming foam and fat keeps the soup clear and less greasy.

Swap the okra

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (beef, butter, beans, tomato, corn, pepper):

  1. Capsicumfits better
  2. Potatofits about as well
  3. Okrathe original
  4. Carrotfits about as well

Fit is the average pairing score against beef, butter, beans, tomato, corn, 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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