Skip to main content
Main

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
Jump to recipe ↓

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

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

  2. Heat the bone over the fire.

  3. Peel, wash, and slice the potatoes.

  4. Cut the cabbage into shreds.

Make the soup

  1. Add the potatoes, cabbage, soaked corn, onions, celery, and tomatoes to the soup.

  2. Simmer slowly, ensuring it does not burn.

Strain and 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

Potatoes
Starch that softens during simmering, thickening the broth and adding body.
White cabbage
Adds bulk and a mild sweetness as it cooks down into the broth.
Shaker corn
Adds sweetness and substance; soaking it overnight softens the kernels before cooking.
Onions
Build savory depth and aroma as they soften in the broth.
Celery
Contributes aromatic flavor to the broth as it simmers.

The step that matters

Simmer slowly, ensuring it does not burn. Gentle heat keeps the broth from scorching on the bottom of the pot, which would add a bitter, burnt taste. Slow simmering also lets the bone's flavor and the vegetables' starches release steadily into the liquid.

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.

More beef soup recipes

Clear 34Brown 23Quick 12French 6Barley 5Economical 4 See all 245 →

You might also like

Tomato SoupTomato Soup526 recipesPotato CroquettesPotato Croquettes255 recipesRoast BeefRoast Beef211 recipesCorn FrittersCorn Fritters203 recipes