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Soup

Broths and Soups

A hearty beef broth made with bacon or ham, cow‑heel, herbs, and spices, thickened with flour and finished with lemon and Madeira.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 20 ingredients
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Why it works: Thyme and winter savory match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 780 recipes. Both carry eucalyptol, which smells eucalyptus, herbal. The science ↓

Broths and Soups

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the broth

  1. Lay the bacon or ham at the bottom of a stewpan.

  2. Add the beef, cow-heel, carrot, thyme, savory, parsley, basil, shallots, onion, allspice, and black pepper.

  3. Pour in the cold water, cover the pan, and set it on a slow fire to boil gently for 15 minutes.

  4. Watch carefully to prevent burning; when browned, fill the pan with boiling water and let it simmer for 2 hours.

Thicken and finish

  1. To thicken, mix 2-3 tablespoons of flour with a ladleful of gravy until well combined, then pour it into the stewpan.

  2. Let it simmer gently for another 30 minutes.

  3. Skim and strain the broth through a fine sieve into the stewpan.

  4. Cut the cow-heel into small pieces and add to the broth.

  5. Squeeze in the lemon juice, add mushroom catsup, salt, black pepper, nutmeg, and Madeira or sherry.

  6. Simmer for 5 more 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. Thyme + winter savorytop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together780 recipes

    Shared aroma: eucalyptol (eucalyptus, herbal).

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

    Shared aroma: cuminaldehyde (Spicy, cumin).

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

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

  4. Thyme + basiltop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together1,768 recipes

    Shared aroma: terpineol (pine, woody).

  5. Lemon + parsleytop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together14,037 recipes

    Shared aroma: beta-phellandrene (minty, terpene).

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

What each ingredient does

Beef
Gives the broth its meaty flavour and body as it simmers for hours.
Cow-heel
Adds gelatine, which gives the finished broth a rich, slightly silky body.
Flour
Thickens the broth so it coats a spoon rather than running thin.
Bacon or ham
Adds salty, smoky savour that deepens the flavour of the stock.
Lemon juice
Adds acidity that brightens the rich, long-cooked flavour.
Madeira or sherry
Adds sweetness and aromatic depth to the finished broth.

The step that matters

Thickening with flour. Flour must be mixed smoothly with a ladleful of hot gravy before it goes into the pan; added dry or in lumps, it clumps and does not thicken evenly. Simmering afterwards cooks out its raw starch taste.

“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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