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Soup

Bone Soup

Bone soup made with bones, vegetables, barley, simmered for hours.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 10 ingredients
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Why it works: Turnip and leek match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 1,046 recipes. Both carry coumarin, which smells sweet, hay. The science ↓

Bone Soup

Ingredients

Directions

Make the broth

  1. Wash the bones and chop or saw them into pieces.

  2. Place the bones in a large saucepan and pour over the water.

  3. Bring to a boil over high heat, skimming the surface well.

  4. Add the salt, skim again, then reduce heat and let simmer for 2 hours.

Prepare the vegetables

  1. Prepare the vegetables: chop the cabbage and place it in a basin of cold water.

  2. Peel and dice the turnip, add it to the basin.

  3. Scrape and slice the carrots, leek, and onion, and add them to the water.

  4. Soak the barley in boiling water.

Finish the soup

  1. After 2 hours, drain the vegetables and add them to the soup.

  2. Drain the barley and add it as well, then stir in the pepper.

  3. Let everything simmer for another 1½ hours.

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. Turnip + leektop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together1,046 recipes

    Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).

  2. Leek + barleytop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together142 recipes

    Shared aroma: 1-octen-3-ol (mushroom, earthy).

  3. Carrot + turniptop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together8,002 recipes

    Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).

  4. Cabbage + turniptop 2% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together897 recipes

    Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).

  5. Turnip + barleytop 2% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together629 recipes

    Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).

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

What each ingredient does

Bones
Release gelatin and flavour into the water, giving the broth body and richness.
Barley
Absorbs liquid and swells, thickening the soup and adding a chewy texture.
Cabbage
Adds bulk and a mild sweetness as it softens during simmering.
Onion
Contributes sweetness and savory depth as it cooks down into the broth.
Carrots
Add natural sweetness and colour, and soften into the soup.

The step that matters

Skimming the surface after boiling. Skimming removes coagulated proteins and fat that would otherwise cloud the broth and taste greasy, so it should be done thoroughly while the soup first heats and again after adding salt.

Swap the onion

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (cabbage, carrot, turnip, leek, pepper, barley):

  1. Parsnipfits better
  2. Beetrootfits better
  3. Lettucefits better
  4. Onionthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against cabbage, carrot, turnip, leek, pepper, barley. 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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