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Portable Soup

A beef and game broth simmered for hours, strained, reduced with black pepper to a thick syrup.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 4 ingredients
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Why it works: Beef and pepper are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 10% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 18,971 recipes. Both carry 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine, which smells earthy, pea. The science ↓

Portable Soup

Ingredients

Directions

Make the gravy

  1. Use fresh shin of beef and any trimmings of meat, poultry, or game.

  2. Cover the meat with cold liquor in a digester or stew pot.

  3. Slowly bring to a boil over at least one hour, skimming off scum.

  4. Add cold water occasionally to help remove scum, but do not add salt.

  5. Once no more scum rises, cover and boil for 8 to 10 hours.

  6. Strain through a fine sieve into a stone pan and cool quickly.

Reduce to a jelly

  1. Remove fat from the top the next day and transfer the gravy to a well-tinned copper stew pan.

  2. Add 2 teaspoons of whole black pepper and boil briskly with the lid off.

  3. Remove any scum that arises and reduce until thick, about 1 quart.

  4. Transfer to a smaller pan and simmer until it reaches a thick syrup consistency.

  5. Test by placing a drop on a cold spoon; if it sets in a stiff jelly, it's done.

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. Beef + peppertop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together18,971 recipes

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

  2. Beef + muttontop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,373 recipes

    Shared aroma: trans-2-nonenal (cardboard, fatty).

  3. Beef + meattop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,533 recipes

    Shared aroma: 1-octen-3-one (mushroom, metallic).

  4. Meat + muttontop 14% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together936 recipes

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

  5. Mutton + peppertop 16% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together5,442 recipes

    Shared aroma: trans-2-nonenal (cardboard, fatty).

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

What each ingredient does

Shin of beef
Its connective tissue breaks down into gelatin, giving the reduced stock body and a jelly-like set.
Trimmings of fresh meat, poultry, or game
Adds extra meat flavour and more gelatin, deepening the savoury richness of the stock.
Liquor from boiled leg of mutton or knuckle of veal
A rich, gelatin-bearing cooking liquid that adds body and savoury flavour.
Whole black pepper
Adds sharp, aromatic warmth that flavours the concentrated stock.

The step that matters

Reducing to a thick syrup. As water evaporates, the gelatin and flavour concentrate quickly, so the stock can scorch or set too stiff. Testing a drop on a cold spoon shows when it has reached a firm jelly.

“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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