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Soup

Gravy Soup

A hearty soup made with calf's foot, diced beef steak, onions, turnip, carrot, ham, and celery seed.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 8 ingredients
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Why it works: Carrot and celery 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 ↓

Gravy Soup

Ingredients

Directions

  1. Boil the calf's foot in 2 quarts of water for 2 hours.

  2. Add the calf's foot and the boiling liquid to the diced beef steak and lightly fried onions.

  3. Include the turnip, carrot, and slice of ham.

  4. When boiling, remove any scum from the surface.

  5. Let everything boil together for 2 hours.

  6. Add the celery seed or piece of celery and boil for an additional 10 minutes.

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

    Shared aroma: myristicin (spice, warm).

  2. Turnip + carrottop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together8,002 recipes

    Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).

  3. Turnip + celerytop 2% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together4,418 recipes

    Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).

  4. Onion + turniptop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together7,585 recipes

    Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).

  5. Onion + carrottop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together21,601 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

Calf's foot
Releases gelatin into the water, giving the soup body and a rich, silky texture.
Beef steak
Adds meaty flavour and protein that becomes tender during the long simmer.
Onions
Fried until light brown, they add sweetness and savoury depth to the broth.
Turnip
Softens during the simmer, adding mild sweetness and body to the soup.
Carrot
Softens during the simmer, contributing gentle sweetness and colour to the soup.

The step that matters

Skimming the scum while boiling. Scum is coagulated protein and impurities that rise as the liquid heats. Removing it early keeps the broth clear and free of off-flavours.

Swap the turnip

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

  1. Leekfits about as well
  2. Potatofits about as well
  3. Turnipthe original
  4. Tomatofits about as well

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