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Ox-Cheek Soup

A hearty soup made with ox cheek, carrots, onions, celery, and other root vegetables, simmered overnight.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 16 ingredients
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Ox-Cheek Soup

Why it works: Thyme and parsley match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 9,057 recipes. Both carry cuminaldehyde, which smells Spicy, cumin. The science ↓

Ox-Cheek Soup

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the stock

  1. Soak the ox cheek in water for at least 1 hour to remove blood.

  2. Place the cheek in a braising pan with carrots, onions, thyme, parsley, celery, mace, cloves, salt, and peppercorns.

  3. Cover with water and cook in the oven overnight.

  4. After cooking, strain the liquid and let it settle.

Make the soup

  1. Chop the cabbage lettuces, celery, turnips, leeks, and carrot into fillets.

  2. In a soup pot, combine the chopped vegetables with the strained liquid and simmer until tender.

  3. Skim off any fat and serve with the cheek cut into square pieces.

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.

Photo for illustrative purposes only · Contact us to use it

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. Thyme + parsleytop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together9,057 recipes

    Shared aroma: cuminaldehyde (Spicy, cumin).

  2. Carrot + parsleytop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together8,053 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2,4-decadienal (seaweed).

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

    Shared aroma: myristicin (spice, warm).

  4. Parsley + celerytop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together6,810 recipes

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

  5. Thyme + clovetop 2% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together4,108 recipes

    Shared aroma: cuminaldehyde (Spicy, cumin).

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

What each ingredient does

Ox cheek
Slow braising breaks down connective tissue, giving the meat a tender, gelatinous texture and enriching the broth.
Onions
Release sweetness and savory depth into the long-cooked stock.
Carrots
Add natural sweetness and body to the stock as they cook down.
Turnips
Hold their shape during simmering while adding mild sweetness and earthy flavor to the soup.
Leeks
Contribute a mild onion flavor and soft texture to the finished soup.

The step that matters

Skimming off the fat. Fat rises to the surface of a long-cooked broth and, if left in, makes the soup greasy and dulls its flavor. Letting the liquid settle after straining helps it separate so the fat can be removed cleanly.

Swap the mace

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (carrot, onion, thyme, parsley, celery, clove, cabbage):

  1. Marjoramfits better
  2. Winter savoryfits better
  3. Allspicefits better
  4. Macethe original

Fit is the average pairing score against carrot, onion, thyme, parsley, celery, clove, cabbage. 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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