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Portable Soup, or Glaze

A beef broth reduced to a thick glaze, made by simmering bones for hours and skimming impurities.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 3 ingredients
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Why it works: Beef and pepper are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 10% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 18,971 recipes. Both carry 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine, which smells earthy, pea. The science ↓

Portable Soup, or Glaze

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the broth

  1. Ask the butcher to break the bones of beef.

  2. Place the bones in a large soup pot and cover with cold water.

  3. Heat gradually until nearly boiling, skimming off any scum that rises.

  4. Add a little cold water to help remove scum, then bring to a boil again and skim again.

  5. Once the broth is clear, boil for 8 to 10 hours.

  6. Strain the broth through a fine sieve into a brown stone pan and cool quickly.

  7. Remove the meat and let it drain in a sieve.

  8. The next day, remove the fat from the top of the broth.

Reduce to a glaze

  1. Pour the broth through a fine sieve into a thick copper stew-pan, avoiding the sediment at the bottom.

  2. Add whole black pepper and boil briskly uncovered.

  3. Skim off any scum that rises.

  4. When it thickens and reduces to about a quart, transfer to a smaller stew-pan.

  5. Set over gentle heat until it thickens to a syrup-like consistency, being careful not to burn it.

  6. Test by taking a spoonful; if it sets into a strong jelly, it is done.

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. Beef + peppertop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together18,971 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

Beef bones (leg or shin)
Release gelatin and flavour into the water during the long simmer, giving the broth body.
Whole black pepper
Adds a mild, aromatic spice to the reduced broth.

The step that matters

Reducing to a syrup-like consistency. The broth must be reduced slowly over gentle heat. Gelatin concentrates as water evaporates, so it sets into a jelly when cooled, but high heat can scorch the sugars and proteins and make the glaze taste burnt.

“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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