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Ox Cheek Soup

A hearty soup made from ox cheek, water, vegetables, herbs, and vermicelli, simmered slowly for several hours.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 11 ingredients
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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

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Separate the bones from the meat and break the bones.

  2. Cut the meat into pieces the size of a finger.

Make the soup

  1. Combine the meat and water in a pot with salt.

  2. Set on a gentle fire and skim well during the first boiling.

  3. After two hours of gentle stewing, add the carrots, turnips, onion, celery, cabbage, sweet herbs, pepper, and vermicelli.

  4. Let it stew for an additional two and a half hours.

  5. Skim the soup and remove the herbs and bones.

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 + celerytop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together10,173 recipes

    Shared aroma: myristicin (spice, warm).

  2. Carrot + turniptop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together8,002 recipes

    Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).

  3. Turnip + chestnuttop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together46 recipes

    Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).

  4. Turnip + cabbagetop 2% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together897 recipes

    Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).

  5. Turnip + celerytop 2% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together4,418 recipes

    Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).

Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs

What each ingredient does

Ox cheek
Slow stewing breaks down connective tissue, making the meat tender and enriching the broth.
Cabbage
Adds bulk and mild sweetness as it softens in the simmering broth.
Carrots
Contribute sweetness and body to the broth as they cook down.
Turnips
Add mild sweetness and soft texture to the soup as they simmer.
Vermicelli
Thickens the soup slightly as its starch releases during cooking.

The step that matters

Skimming during the first boiling. Removing the foam that rises as the water first boils takes off impurities and proteins, keeping the broth clear and clean-tasting.

Swap the onion

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (carrot, turnip, celery, cabbage, pepper, chestnut):

  1. Parsnipfits better
  2. Lettucefits better
  3. Beetrootfits better
  4. Onionthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against carrot, turnip, celery, cabbage, pepper, chestnut. 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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