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Baked Soup

A beef and vegetable soup baked in a jar with rice, simmered for six hours.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 12 ingredients
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Why it works: Carrot and parsley match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 8,053 recipes. Both carry 2,4-decadienal, which smells seaweed. The science ↓

Baked Soup

Ingredients

Directions

The book gives no oven temperature. The 300°F (150°C) in the steps was added when the recipe was transcribed, as a starting point.

Prepare

  1. Cut the meat into dice.

  2. Peel and chop all the vegetables.

Assemble

  1. Add the rice and seasoning, and mix well.

  2. Put the mixture into a strong earthenware jar.

  3. Pour in the water and fit the cover on closely.

Bake and serve

  1. Set the jar in a pan of boiling water in the oven at 300°F (150°C) for 6 hours, and do not uncover while cooking.

  2. Serve without further preparation.

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 + parsleytop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together8,053 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2,4-decadienal (seaweed).

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

    Shared aroma: myristicin (spice, warm).

  3. Turnip + carrottop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together8,002 recipes

    Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).

  4. Celery + parsleytop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together6,810 recipes

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

  5. Turnip + cabbagetop 2% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together897 recipes

    Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).

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 savory flavor and meaty texture of the soup.
Rice
Absorbs liquid and softens during the long cook, adding body to the broth.
Tomatoes
Add acidity and brightness that balance the rich meat and vegetables.
Cabbage
Adds bulk and mild sweetness as it softens slowly in the liquid.
Onion
Builds aroma and sweetness as it cooks down in the broth.

The step that matters

Sealing the jar and keeping the cover on. A tight cover keeps steam and moisture inside the jar, so the water does not evaporate. The beef and vegetables then cook gently in their own liquid over the long bake, which keeps the soup tender and flavorful.

Swap the tomato

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

  1. Leekfits better
  2. Parsnipfits better
  3. Broccolifits better
  4. Tomatothe original

Fit is the average pairing score against beef, celery, turnip, cabbage, onion, carrot, parsley. 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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