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Ox-cheek Soup

A hearty soup made with ox cheek, ham or bacon, vegetables, herbs, and water, thickened with flour.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 16 ingredients
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Ox-cheek Soup

Why it works: Parsnip and carrot match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 1,097 recipes. Both carry 2-isobutyl-3-methoxypyrazine, which smells green bell pepper, earthy. The science ↓

Ox-cheek Soup

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Place the ham in the bottom of a large pot with the butter.

  2. Break the bones of the ox-cheek.

  3. Wash the ox-cheek clean.

  4. Add the ox-cheek to the pot.

  5. Chop the vegetables.

  6. Add the vegetables to the pot.

Make the soup

  1. Set the pot over low heat for 30 minutes.

  2. Add the water.

  3. Simmer gently until reduced to 4 quarts.

  4. Remove the meat from the pot.

  5. Strain the soup into a clean pot.

  6. Thicken the soup with flour.

  7. Add a head of sliced celery.

  8. Simmer until the celery is tender.

  9. Add browning if needed.

Serve

  1. Cut the meat into small pieces.

  2. Pour the soup over the meat.

  3. Serve with the crust of a French roll.

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.

Photo for illustrative purposes only · Contact us to use it

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 + carrottop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together1,097 recipes

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

  2. Carrot + celerytop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together10,173 recipes

    Shared aroma: myristicin (spice, warm).

  3. Parsnip + celerytop 3% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together561 recipes

    Shared aroma: myristicin (spice, warm).

  4. Carrot + clovetop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together5,873 recipes

    Shared aroma: cuminaldehyde (Spicy, cumin).

  5. Parsnip + clovetop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together306 recipes

    Shared aroma: myrcene (balsamic, herbaceous).

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

What each ingredient does

Ox-cheek
Its connective tissue breaks down during long simmering, giving the soup body and tender meat.
Butter
Fat that carries flavor from the ham and vegetables into the soup.
Ham or bacon
Adds savory, salty depth to the broth as it cooks.
Onions
Sweetness and aroma develop as they soften in the fat.
Carrots
Add natural sweetness and body to the broth.

The step that matters

Simmer gently until reduced to 4 quarts. A hard boil makes the broth cloudy and toughens the meat, while a gentle simmer lets collagen soften slowly and the flavors concentrate clearly.

Swap the mace

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (butter, ham, parsnip, carrot, onion, celery, clove):

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

Fit is the average pairing score against butter, ham, parsnip, carrot, onion, celery, clove. 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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