Why it works: Beef and pepper are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 10% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 18,971 recipes. Both carry 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine, which smells earthy, pea. The science ↓
Portable Soup
Ingredients
Directions
Prepare the stock
Place the meat in a digester or a covered stewpot.
Cover the meat with cold liquor and slowly bring to a boil over at least one hour.
Skim off the scum. Add cold water as needed to help remove it.
Do not add salt.
Once no more scum rises, cover the pot and boil for 8 to 10 hours.
Strain the liquid through a fine sieve into a stone pan and let it cool quickly.
Remove any fat from the top the next day.
Reduce to a jelly
Transfer the gravy to a well-tinned copper stewpan, avoiding sediment.
Add whole black pepper.
Boil briskly with the lid off. Skim any scum that arises.
When thickened and reduced to about 1 quart, transfer to a smaller stewpan.
Simmer until it reaches a thick syrup consistency.
Test by placing a few drops on a cold spoon. If it does not set into a stiff jelly, boil longer until it does.
Pour into small pots with lids or onto a large flat dish to cool.
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.
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Beef + peppertop 10% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together18,971 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).
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Beef + muttontop 10% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together2,373 recipes
Shared aroma: trans-2-nonenal (cardboard, fatty).
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Beef + meattop 12% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together2,533 recipes
Shared aroma: 1-octen-3-one (mushroom, metallic).
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Meat + muttontop 14% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together936 recipes
Shared aroma: 2,4-decadienal (seaweed).
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Mutton + peppertop 16% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together5,442 recipes
Shared aroma: trans-2-nonenal (cardboard, fatty).
Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs
What each ingredient does
- Shin of beef
- Provides meat and connective tissue that release gelatin and flavour into the stock during long simmering.
- Whole black pepper
- Adds aroma and gentle spice to the stock as it reduces.
The step that matters
Testing the thickened stock on a cold spoon. Stock must be reduced far enough for its gelatin to set. Too little reduction leaves it runny, while over-boiling can make it overly thick or cloudy. Testing on a cold spoon shows whether it will set as a stiff jelly before cooling.
“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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