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Ox Cheek Soup

A hearty soup made from ox cheek, ham, celery, onions, carrots, parsnip, mace, and vermicelli, served with French roll crust.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 13 ingredients
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Why it works: Carrot and parsnip match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 1,097 recipes. Both carry 2-isobutyl-3-methoxypyrazine, which smells green bell pepper, earthy. The science ↓

Ox Cheek Soup

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the cheek

  1. Break the bones of the ox cheek.

  2. Wash the ox cheek clean.

  3. Melt the butter in a large stewpan.

  4. Place the cheek in the stewpan with the fleshy side down.

Make the soup

  1. Add the sliced ham, chopped celery, onions, carrots, parsnip, and mace.

  2. Cook over moderate heat for 15 minutes to extract flavors.

  3. Add 4-5 quarts of water.

  4. Simmer until reduced to 2 quarts.

  5. Strain the mixture.

  6. Add chopped celery and browning for color.

  7. Scald the vermicelli.

  8. Add the vermicelli to the soup.

  9. Boil for 10 minutes.

  10. Serve in a tureen with the crust of a French roll.

Make the stew and finish

  1. Keep the cheek whole for stew.

  2. Add boiled turnip and carrot.

  3. Add toasted bread diced.

  4. Strain the soup over the stew ingredients.

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 + parsniptop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together1,097 recipes

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

  2. Celery + carrottop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together10,173 recipes

    Shared aroma: myristicin (spice, warm).

  3. Celery + parsniptop 3% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together561 recipes

    Shared aroma: myristicin (spice, warm).

  4. Celery + peppertop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together16,012 recipes

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

  5. Carrot + peppertop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together14,555 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

Ox cheek
Provides rich meat and gelatin that give the soup body and a silky mouthfeel.
Butter
Fat that carries flavor from the aromatics and helps them brown gently in the pan.
Lean ham
Adds savory, salty depth to the broth without much added fat.
Onions
Break down during long cooking, adding sweetness and savory base flavor to the broth.
Celery
Contributes aromatic, vegetal flavor that builds the base of the soup.
Vermicelli
Thin pasta that soaks up broth and adds a soft, starchy texture to the soup.

The step that matters

Simmer until reduced to 2 quarts. Reducing a large volume of water concentrates the flavors from the meat and vegetables. Simmering gently rather than boiling keeps the broth clear and prevents the meat from toughening.

Swap the mace

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

  1. Parsleyfits better
  2. Thymefits better
  3. Marjoramfits better
  4. Macethe original

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