Why it works: Beef and ham are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 15% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 1,729 recipes. Both carry 2-acetyl-1-pyrroline, which smells popcorn, roasted. The science ↓
Family Soup
Ingredients
Directions
Prepare
Chop the beef or mutton, ham, and vegetables finely.
Simmer
Boil in 3 quarts of water for 1.5 hours.
Skim the soup and add spices and salt to taste.
Variations
For variations, strain and convert into carrot turnip or ground-rice soup.
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 + hamtop 15% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together1,729 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-acetyl-1-pyrroline (popcorn, roasted).
Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs
What each ingredient does
- Beef or mutton
- Long simmering draws collagen and flavour from the meat, giving the broth body and richness.
- Ham
- Adds salty, savoury depth to the broth.
- Vegetables
- Release sugars and aromatic compounds into the broth, adding sweetness and flavour.
The step that matters
Skim the soup. Proteins and fat that rise during simmering form foam and grease on the surface. Skimming them off keeps the broth clearer and less greasy.
“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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