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Ox-cheek Soup

A hearty soup made with ox cheek, ham or bacon, vegetables, herbs, and a French roll crust.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 15 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 the base

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

  2. Break the bones of the ox-cheek, wash it clean, and add it to the pot.

  3. Chop the vegetables and add them, reserving one head of celery, then cook over low heat for 30 minutes.

Make the soup

  1. Add the water and simmer until reduced to 4 quarts.

  2. Remove the meat from the pot, strain the soup into a clean pot.

  3. Thicken the soup with flour, add the sliced celery, and simmer until tender.

Serve

  1. Cut the meat into small pieces, pour the soup over it, and 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
Slow simmering breaks down its connective tissue, giving the meat and broth body and richness.
Butter
Fat that carries flavour from the ham and vegetables as they begin to cook.
Onions
Release sweetness and savoury depth as they cook slowly in the fat.
Carrots
Add natural sweetness and colour to the broth as they soften.
Celery
Adds aroma and a fresh vegetal note, and the sliced portion becomes tender in the soup.
Flour (in the method)
Thickens the strained soup so it has a fuller, smoother body.

The step that matters

Simmering the soup down to 4 quarts. Reducing slowly concentrates flavour and gelatin from the bones and meat. Boiling hard can make the broth cloudy and greasy, so keep it at a gentle simmer.

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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