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Beef Soup

A hearty soup made with beef bone, potatoes, cabbage, corn, onions, celery, and tomatoes.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 7 ingredients
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Why it works: Potato and onion are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 3% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 9,023 recipes. Both carry 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine, which smells earthy, pea. The science ↓

Beef Soup

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the broth

  1. Boil the beef bone the day before and remove the fat the next day.

  2. Heat the beef broth over the fire.

Make the soup

  1. Peel, wash, and slice the potatoes, then add them to the soup.

  2. Cut the cabbage into shreds and add it to the soup.

  3. Add the soaked Shaker corn, onions, celery, and tomatoes.

  4. Simmer slowly, ensuring it does not burn.

Serve

  1. Strain the soup and serve.

  2. For noodle soup, add noodles after straining and cook for 15-20 minutes.

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. Potato + oniontop 3% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together9,023 recipes

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

  2. Celery + tomatotop 4% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together3,377 recipes

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

  3. Potato + corntop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together938 recipes

    Shared aroma: (e)-2-octenal (fatty, green).

  4. Potato + tomatotop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together2,798 recipes

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

  5. Corn + tomatotop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together2,099 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).

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

What each ingredient does

Beef bone
Gives the broth its meaty flavour and body as it simmers.
Potatoes
Add starch that thickens the soup slightly and gives it a soft, filling texture.
White cabbage
Adds bulk and a mild sweetness as it cooks down into the broth.
Shaker corn
Adds sweetness and a tender bite once soaked and simmered.
Onions
Build savoury depth and aroma as they soften in the broth.

The step that matters

Simmer slowly, ensuring it does not burn. Gentle heat keeps the broth from scorching on the base of the pot, which would give a bitter, burnt taste. Slow simmering also draws flavour out of the bone and vegetables without breaking them up.

Swap the cabbage

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (beef, potato, corn, onion, celery, tomato):

  1. Carrotfits better
  2. Capsicumfits better
  3. Okrafits better
  4. Cabbagethe original

Fit is the average pairing score against beef, potato, corn, onion, celery, tomato. 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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