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Bone Soup

A clear soup made by simmering bones with vegetables and spices for two hours.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 12 ingredients
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Why it works: Parsnip and turnip match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 590 recipes. Both carry coumarin, which smells sweet, hay. The science ↓

Bone Soup

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Place bones in a saucepan and cover with cold water.

  2. Heat slowly until boiling. Skim.

  3. Clean and cut vegetables into quarters lengthwise.

Simmer

  1. Add salt, vegetables and spices.

  2. Reduce heat and simmer gently for 2 hours.

Finish

  1. Strain the soup.

  2. Thicken it, or serve the vegetables in it.

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. Parsnip + turniptop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together590 recipes

    Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).

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

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

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

    Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).

  4. Parsnip + allspicetop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together54 recipes

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

  5. Carrot + allspicetop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together1,021 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

Bones
Release gelatin and flavour into the water during long, gentle simmering, giving body to the broth.
Thickening agent
Starch or gelling material that thickens the broth when added at the end.

The step that matters

Skim after the water comes to a boil. Foam and fine impurities rise from the bones as the water heats. Removing them early keeps the broth clear and prevents a murky, off-flavoured result.

Swap the mace

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (carrot, onion, parsnip, turnip, allspice, rice):

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

Fit is the average pairing score against carrot, onion, parsnip, turnip, allspice, rice. 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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