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Beef Soup

A simple beef soup with rice, onions, tomatoes, potatoes, and red pepper.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 8 ingredients
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Why it works: Onion and potato 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

  1. Boil the beef in a pot filled with water.

  2. When the beef is half cooked, add the rice, onion, tomato, potatoes, red pepper, and salt.

  3. Continue boiling until everything is very tender.

  4. Serve hot.

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. Onion + potatotop 3% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together9,023 recipes

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

  2. Tomato + potatotop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together2,798 recipes

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

  3. Rice + tomatotop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together3,065 recipes

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

  4. Rice + potatotop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together851 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-acetyl-1-pyrroline (popcorn, roasted).

  5. Beef + oniontop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together17,092 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

Beef
Provides the main protein and meaty flavour that the broth carries.
Rice
Thickens the soup slightly as its starch releases during boiling and adds body.
Potatoes
Soften during long boiling and add starch, making the soup heartier.
Onion
Adds aromatic sweetness and depth as it cooks into the broth.
Tomato
Adds acidity and savoury flavour that brightens the broth.

The step that matters

Adding the vegetables and rice at the halfway point. Beef needs a long simmer to become tender, while rice and potatoes break down quickly. Adding them only once the beef is half cooked lets everything finish together without turning mushy or leaving the meat tough.

Swap the onion

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (beef, rice, tomato, potato, pepper):

  1. Capsicumfits better
  2. Carrotfits better
  3. Okrafits about as well
  4. Onionthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against beef, rice, tomato, potato, 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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