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Winter Vegetable Soup and Bouilli

A hearty beef and vegetable soup thickened with flour and ketchup.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 18 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 ↓

Winter Vegetable Soup and Bouilli

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the broth

  1. Place the beef in a large pot with cold water and salt.

  2. Use a wire trivet to prevent burning and ensure even cooking.

  3. Simmer gently, skimming off scum as it rises.

  4. Add another quart of cold water.

  5. Skim again for clarity.

  6. Brown the onions in a Dutch oven.

  7. Add the browned onions and the other vegetables to the pot.

  8. Add bay leaves, peppercorns, cloves, garlic, sweet herbs, and mushroom.

  9. Simmer with the lid on for 4 hours.

Finish and serve

  1. Remove the meat.

  2. Skim off the fat.

  3. Strain the vegetables from the broth and mash them into a pulp.

  4. Return the broth and pulp to the pot.

  5. Thicken with flour mixed with soup.

  6. Add the ketchups.

  7. Bring to a boil.

  8. Serve with vegetables in a tureen.

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. Onion + garlictop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together29,058 recipes

    Shared aroma: furaneol (caramel, strawberry).

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

    Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).

  4. Carrot + marjoramtop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together687 recipes

    Shared aroma: cuminaldehyde (Spicy, cumin).

  5. Clove + marjoramtop 2% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together1,075 recipes

    Shared aroma: cuminaldehyde (Spicy, cumin).

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

What each ingredient does

Beef
Gives the broth its rich meaty flavour and body as it simmers.
Onions
Browning them first adds sweetness and deeper colour to the broth.
Flour
Thickens the broth to a smoother, more body-filled texture.
Mushroom
Adds savoury, earthy depth to the broth.
Carrots
Add sweetness and body to the broth as they cook down.
Celery
Adds aromatic, savoury flavour to the broth.

The step that matters

Skimming the broth. Scum and fat rising during the simmer cloud the broth and taste greasy. Skimming early and again before serving keeps it clear and clean-flavoured.

Swap the clove

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (beef, onion, carrot, turnip, celery, garlic, marjoram):

  1. Thymefits better
  2. Parsleyfits better
  3. Winter savoryfits better
  4. Clovethe original

Fit is the average pairing score against beef, onion, carrot, turnip, celery, garlic, marjoram. 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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