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Beef and Tomato Soup

A hearty soup made with beef, tomatoes, corn, and herbs simmered in broth.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 10 ingredients
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Why it works: Marjoram and pepper match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 3% of all ingredient pairs, and 2,609 recipes mention both. Both carry estragole, which smells anise, licorice. The science ↓

Beef and Tomato Soup

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the broth

  1. Remove all fat from the beef and cut it into small pieces.

  2. Place the beef in a stew pan with cold water and simmer slowly for one hour, removing any scum that rises.

  3. Stew the tomatoes until soft, then press them through a colander and add to the broth.

  4. Boil the broth for half an hour, then add the sprig of marjoram or thyme.

Finish the soup

  1. Cut and scrape the kernels from the corn cobs.

  2. Mix the corn, flour, and browned sugar with the cream or milk, then add to the soup.

  3. Boil for fifteen minutes and season with salt and cayenne pepper.

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 aroma chemistry they share, and how many recipes mention both.

  1. Marjoram + peppertop 3% of all pairs
    Aroma overlapstrong
    Mentioned together2,609 recipes

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

  2. Tomato + corntop 6% of all pairs
    Aroma overlapstrong
    Mentioned together2,099 recipes

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

  3. Tomato + peppertop 7% of all pairs
    Aroma overlapmoderate
    Mentioned together17,923 recipes

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

  4. Beef + tomatotop 8% of all pairs
    Aroma overlapmoderate
    Mentioned together5,448 recipes

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

  5. Tomato + marjoramtop 9% of all pairs
    Aroma overlapmoderate
    Mentioned together299 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-hexenal (green, leafy).

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

What each ingredient does

Red beef
Provides the main body and rich flavour of the broth as it simmers.
Ripe tomatoes
Add acidity, colour and body when stewed and pressed into the broth.
Flour
Thickens the soup slightly when mixed with the cream or milk and simmered.
Cream or milk
Adds richness and softness, mellowing the tomato acidity.
Sweet corn
Adds sweetness and a tender texture to the soup.

The step that matters

Adding the flour and cream mixture. Flour mixed into cold cream or milk and added to hot soup can clump. Stirring it smoothly first, then simmering, keeps the soup even and lightly thickened.

Flavor stand-ins for the marjoram

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (beef, tomato, corn, flour, sugar, cream, pepper):

  1. Celerybetter flavor fit
  2. Cuminbetter flavor fit
  3. Nutmegbetter flavor fit
  4. Marjoramthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against beef, tomato, corn, flour, sugar, cream, pepper. Candidates are from the same food group and used in at least 100 recipes. This compares flavor only: it does not check the job the ingredient does in the dish (bulk, moisture, acidity, structure).

“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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