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Soup

Beef and Cabbage Soup, As in Scotland

A hearty soup of beef, cabbage, carrots, turnips, onions, and pepper simmered slowly in water.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 8 ingredients
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Why it works: Carrot and turnip match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 8,002 recipes. Both carry coumarin, which smells sweet, hay. The science ↓

Beef and Cabbage Soup, As in Scotland

Ingredients

Directions

Make the soup

  1. Place the beef in a large pot with 10 quarts of water.

  2. Add carrots, turnips, whole onions tied in muslin, and black pepper.

  3. Add the quartered cabbages.

  4. Stew slowly for 6 hours or until the meat is tender.

Serve

  1. Serve the beef in a soup dish with the soup and vegetables.

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

    Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).

  2. Turnip + cabbagetop 2% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together897 recipes

    Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).

  3. Turnip + oniontop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together7,585 recipes

    Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).

  4. Pepper + cabbagetop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together4,081 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).

  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

Beef
Provides the main protein and rich meaty flavor, becoming tender through slow stewing.
Cabbages
Adds bulk and a mild sweetness as they soften in the broth.
Carrots
Contribute natural sweetness and body to the broth as they cook.
Turnips
Add a mildly peppery sweetness and soft texture to the soup.
Whole onions
Release savory aroma and sweetness into the broth while staying intact in the muslin.

The step that matters

Stew slowly for 6 hours or until the meat is tender. Low, slow heat breaks down the tough connective tissue in rump or brisket into gelatin, making the meat tender. Rushing with high heat leaves it tough and chewy.

Swap the onion

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

  1. Leekfits better
  2. Parsnipfits better
  3. Broccolifits better
  4. Onionthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against beef, carrot, turnip, pepper, 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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