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Ox-Cheek Soup

A hearty soup made with ox cheek, ham, celery, onions, carrots, parsnip, mace, and vermicelli.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 13 ingredients
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Ox-Cheek Soup

Why it works: Carrot and parsnip 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. In a large stewpan, melt the butter over moderate heat.

  2. Place the ox-cheek, fleshy side down, in the pan.

  3. Add the sliced ham, celery, onions, carrots, parsnip, and mace.

  4. Cook for 15 minutes, then add the water.

  5. Simmer gently until reduced to 2 quarts.

Finish the soup

  1. For soup, strain and add chopped celery and browning sauce.

  2. Scald the vermicelli, add to the soup, and boil for 10 minutes.

  3. Serve in a tureen with the crust of a French roll.

Stew variation

  1. For stew, remove the cheek, add boiled turnip and carrot, and strain the soup over it.

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. Carrot + parsniptop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together1,097 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-isobutyl-3-methoxypyrazine (green bell pepper, earthy).

  2. Celery + carrottop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together10,173 recipes

    Shared aroma: myristicin (spice, warm).

  3. Celery + parsniptop 3% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together561 recipes

    Shared aroma: myristicin (spice, warm).

  4. Onion + carrottop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together21,601 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).

  5. Beef + oniontop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together17,092 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
Gives rich beef flavour and body to the broth as it simmers slowly.
Onions
Add sweetness and savoury depth to the base as they soften and brown.
Vermicelli
Adds starch that thickens the soup slightly and gives it body.
Butter
Carries the aromatics and adds richness to the base as it cooks.
Lean ham
Contributes salty, savoury meatiness to the stock.

The step that matters

Simmer gently until reduced to 2 quarts. A gentle simmer extracts flavour from the ox-cheek and vegetables slowly while keeping the broth clear. A hard boil makes it cloudy and can toughen the meat, and the reduction concentrates the flavour.

Swap the mace

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (butter, beef, ham, celery, onion, carrot, parsnip):

  1. Parsleyfits better
  2. Thymefits better
  3. Marjoramfits better
  4. Macethe original

Fit is the average pairing score against butter, beef, ham, celery, onion, carrot, parsnip. 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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