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Shin-of-Beef Soup

A slow-cooked beef soup made with shin, carrots, onions, celery, herbs, anchovies, ham, cloves, pepper, and water.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 10 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 ↓

Shin-of-Beef Soup

Ingredients

Directions

Make the soup

  1. Place beef pieces in a large pot with cold water.

  2. Add sliced carrots, onions, celery, sweet herbs, anchovies, ham, cloves, and pepper.

  3. Simmer gently over low heat for at least 24 hours (36 hours is better).

Strain and finish

  1. Strain the soup into a pan and let it cool overnight.

  2. Remove the fat from the surface before serving.

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. Clove + peppertop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together17,451 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl octanoate (fruity, wine).

  3. Carrot + clovetop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together5,873 recipes

    Shared aroma: cuminaldehyde (Spicy, cumin).

  4. Celery + peppertop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together16,012 recipes

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

  5. Carrot + peppertop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together14,555 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

Hind legs of beef
Break down slowly into gelatin, giving the broth body and a rich mouthfeel.
Carrots
Add sweetness and aromatic flavor to the broth as they soften during simmering.
Onions
Contribute sweetness and savory depth as they cook down into the broth.
Celery
Adds aromatic, vegetal flavor that builds the base of the soup.
Anchovies
Add savory depth, rounding out the broth without a distinct fishy taste.

The step that matters

Long, gentle simmer. Holding the soup at a low, gentle simmer for a long time lets collagen from the beef slowly convert to gelatin. Boiling hard makes the broth cloudy and can toughen the meat, so keep the heat low.

Swap the clove

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

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

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