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A Cheap Soup

A hearty beef soup with onions, turnips, potatoes, rice, and oatmeal, simmered for several hours.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 11 ingredients
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Why it works: Thyme and parsley match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 9,057 recipes. Both carry cuminaldehyde, which smells Spicy, cumin. The science ↓

A Cheap Soup

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Combine the beef and water in a large pot.

  2. Add the onions, turnips, thyme, parsley, pepper, and salt.

  3. Stir in the rice, potatoes, and oatmeal.

Cook

  1. Bring to a boil, then reduce heat and simmer for 3 to 4 hours.

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. Thyme + parsleytop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together9,057 recipes

    Shared aroma: cuminaldehyde (Spicy, cumin).

  2. Parsley + peppertop 2% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together34,122 recipes

    Shared aroma: 4'-methylacetophenone (bitter almond).

  3. Turnip + parsleytop 2% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together2,842 recipes

    Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).

  4. Turnip + thymetop 3% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together1,352 recipes

    Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).

  5. Onion + potatotop 3% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together9,023 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

Lean beef
Provides the main protein and savory meaty flavor as it simmers in the broth.
Rice
Absorbs liquid and softens, thickening the soup and adding body.
Potatoes
Break down partly during simmering, adding starch that thickens the broth.
Oatmeal
Releases starch as it cooks, further thickening the soup.
Onions
Soften and sweeten as they simmer, building the base flavor.
Turnips
Turn tender during long simmering and add a mild, slightly peppery sweetness.

The step that matters

Simmer gently for 3 to 4 hours. A rolling boil toughens lean beef and can break up the potatoes and rice too much. A low, steady simmer keeps the meat tender and the vegetables intact while the broth slowly develops flavor.

Swap the onion

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (beef, turnip, thyme, parsley, pepper, rice, potato):

  1. Carrotfits better
  2. Leekfits better
  3. Parsnipfits better
  4. Onionthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against beef, turnip, thyme, parsley, pepper, rice, potato. 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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