Name: Portable Soup
Ingredients: 1 or 2 knuckles of veal; 1 or 2 shins of beef; 3 pounds of beef; water

Why it works: Veal and beef are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 11% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 3,784 recipes. Both carry 2,6-nonadienal, which smells cucumber, green. The science ↓

Portable Soup

Ingredients

1 or 2 knuckles of veal
1 or 2 shins of beef
3 pounds of beef
water

Directions

Boil the veal knuckles, beef shins, and beef in enough water to cover them.
Simmer until the meat is tender and the flavors are extracted.

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.

Veal + beeftop 11% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together3,784 recipes

Shared aroma: 2,6-nonadienal (cucumber, green).

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

What each ingredient does

Veal knuckles: Adds gelatin and rich flavor to the broth as it simmers.
Beef shins: Connective tissue breaks down during simmering, adding body and savory depth to the broth.
Beef: Contributes meaty flavor to the broth and becomes tender as it simmers.

“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.