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Restorative Soup

A hearty broth made from veal, chicken, and beef bones simmered for hours, optionally flavored with carrot, turnip, and onion.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 6 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 ↓

Restorative Soup

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Cut the meat into small pieces, removing all fat.

  2. Put the bones and meat into a saucepan with the cold water and add the salt.

Simmer

  1. Bring to a boil, skim well, and simmer gently for 5 hours.

  2. If desired, add a small carrot, turnip, and onion to improve flavor.

Strain and serve

  1. Strain the soup and let it cool; remove the fat from the top.

  2. Heat as required.

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. Chicken + beeftop 4% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together2,148 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-furfurylthiol (coffee, roasted).

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

    Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).

  4. Carrot + oniontop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together21,601 recipes

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

  5. Beef + oniontop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together17,092 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

Knuckle of veal
Releases gelatin and flavor into the water, giving the broth body and a rich mouthfeel.
Chicken
Adds savory meat flavor and gelatinous body to the broth during long simmering.
Shin of beef
Contributes deep meaty flavor and collagen that enriches the broth during long simmering.

The step that matters

Skimming after the boil. Foam and fine impurities rise to the surface as the liquid heats. Skimming them early keeps the broth clear and clean-tasting through the long simmer.

Swap the carrot

The recipe marks carrot as optional. How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (veal, chicken, beef, turnip, onion):

  1. Leekfits better
  2. Potatofits about as well
  3. Carrotthe original
  4. Chivefits about as well

Fit is the average pairing score against veal, chicken, beef, turnip, onion. 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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