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Menu for a Party of Eight

A beef soup made with shin, head pieces, vegetables, herbs, anchovies, mushroom ketchup, sugar, caramel, Madeira, and lime.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 19 ingredients
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Why it works: Carrot and parsley match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 8,053 recipes. Both carry 2,4-decadienal, which smells seaweed. The science ↓

Menu for a Party of Eight

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the stock

  1. Skim all fat and scum from the soup.

  2. Remove bones and set aside to cool under a weight.

  3. Place shin of beef and removed bones in a soup kettle with cold head liquor and enough cold water to cover completely.

  4. Skim carefully.

  5. Add water to maintain a low boil. When boiling, reduce heat.

  6. Add quartered onions, celery, carrots, lime rind, parsley, basil, thyme, marjoram, peppercorns, anchovies, mushroom ketchup, sugar, caramel, and salt.

  7. Simmer slowly for about 3 hours, skimming occasionally without allowing it to boil.

  8. Strain the soup carefully and cool in a bowl to remove grease.

Add the head and finish

  1. Cut the cooled head into 1.5-inch squares and skim the soup again.

  2. Pour the soup into a large saucepan. Add the head pieces.

  3. Cook slowly for 30 minutes.

  4. Drain the pieces and strain the soup again.

  5. If necessary, clarify it by adding Madeira and lime juice.

  6. Heat the soup when ready to serve.

  7. Pour it into a tureen over selected pieces of the head.

  8. Serve with lime quarters and Madeira on the side.

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

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

  2. Celery + carrottop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together10,173 recipes

    Shared aroma: myristicin (spice, warm).

  3. Celery + parsleytop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together6,810 recipes

    Shared aroma: 4'-methylacetophenone (bitter almond).

  4. Parsley + basiltop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together2,351 recipes

    Shared aroma: myristicin (spice, warm).

  5. Lime + parsleytop 2% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together547 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

Shin of beef
Gives the soup its meaty flavour and body as it simmers into a rich stock.
Head liquor
Adds gelatin-rich body and savoury depth to the stock.
Mushroom ketchup
Contributes concentrated savoury, umami depth to the broth.
Madeira
Adds a rounded, fortified wine sweetness and aroma to the finished soup.
Lime juice
Adds bright acidity that lifts the rich broth.

The step that matters

Skimming during the simmer. Fat and scum that rise during simmering cloud the broth and carry off-flavours. Skimming carefully and never letting the soup boil keeps the stock clear and clean-tasting.

Swap the onion

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (beef, meat, celery, carrot, lime, parsley, basil):

  1. Parsnipfits better
  2. Tomatofits better
  3. Capsicumfits better
  4. Onionthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against beef, meat, celery, carrot, lime, parsley, basil. 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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