Name: Ox-cheek Soup, H, LA Flamande
Ingredients: 2 pounds ox cheek; 1 onion, chopped; 2 carrots, chopped; 2 stalks celery, chopped; 4 cups beef stock; 1 bay leaf; Salt and pepper to taste; Lobster sauce for serving

Why it works: Carrot and celery match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 10,173 recipes. Both carry myristicin, which smells spice, warm. The science ↓

Ox-cheek Soup, H, LA Flamande

Ingredients

Directions

The book gives no cooking times; the times in the steps were added in transcription, so check for doneness rather than trusting the clock.

Make the soup

In a large pot, brown the ox cheek on all sides.
Add the onion, carrots, and celery; sauté until softened.
Pour in the beef stock and add the bay leaf.
Bring to a boil, then reduce heat and simmer for 2-3 hours until tender.
Season with salt and pepper.

Serve

Serve hot with lobster sauce.

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.

Carrot + celerytop 1% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together10,173 recipes

Shared aroma: myristicin (spice, warm).
Celery + peppertop 5% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together16,012 recipes

Shared aroma: 4'-methylacetophenone (bitter almond).
Carrot + peppertop 6% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together14,555 recipes

Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).
Lobster + saucetop 6% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together1,095 recipes

Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).
Onion + carrottop 6% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together21,601 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

Ox cheek: Slow simmering breaks down its connective tissue, making the meat tender and rich.
Onion: Sautéed aromatics build a sweet, savory base for the broth.
Carrots: Release natural sweetness and body into the simmering broth.
Celery: Adds savory, aromatic flavor to the broth as it softens.
Beef stock: Forms the liquid that carries flavor and keeps the meat moist as it cooks.

The step that matters

Simmer gently until tender. A rolling boil toughens meat and can cloud the broth. Keeping the liquid at a gentle simmer lets the connective tissue in the ox cheek slowly soften into gelatin, giving tender meat and a silky broth.

Swap the onion

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (carrot, celery, beef, pepper, lobster, sauce):

Capsicumfits better
Tomatofits better
Turnipfits better
Onionthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against carrot, celery, beef, pepper, lobster, sauce. 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.

Roast Beef211 recipes

Beef Loaf175 recipes

Lobster Sauce174 recipes

Carrot Soup134 recipes

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Ox-cheek Soup, H, LA Flamande