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Ox-head Soup

A hearty soup made from ox cheek, vegetables, herbs, and broth, simmered for hours and thickened with butter and flour.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 15 ingredients
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Why it works: Marjoram and thyme match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 2,225 recipes. Both carry terpineol, which smells pine, woody. The science ↓

Ox-head Soup

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the meat

  1. Soak the ox cheek in cold water for 2 hours.

  2. Break the bones and wash the meat in warm water.

  3. Place the meat in a pot and cover with cold water.

Make the broth

  1. Bring to a boil, skim the surface, then add celery, carrots, turnip, onions, peppercorns, allspice, sweet herbs, and parsley.

  2. Cover and simmer on low heat for about 3 hours.

  3. Remove the head, strain the soup into a stoneware pan, and cool overnight.

  4. The next day, cut the meat into small pieces and skim the broth.

Finish the soup

  1. In a clean stewpan, combine 2 quarts of broth with the meat and simmer gently for 30 minutes.

  2. If desired, thicken with a mixture of butter and flour, and add wine or brandy and Cayenne to taste.

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. Marjoram + thymetop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together2,225 recipes

    Shared aroma: terpineol (pine, woody).

  2. Allspice + thymetop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together1,077 recipes

    Shared aroma: beta-phellandrene (minty, terpene).

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

    Shared aroma: myristicin (spice, warm).

  4. Marjoram + lemontop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together957 recipes

    Shared aroma: beta-phellandrene (minty, terpene).

  5. Allspice + marjoramtop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together342 recipes

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

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

What each ingredient does

Ox-cheek
Provides rich meat and gelatin that give the soup body and a savoury depth.
Butter and flour
Together they form a roux that thickens the broth into a smoother, heavier texture.
Broth
Forms the liquid base that carries the flavour of the meat and vegetables.
Onions
Add sweetness and savoury aroma as they soften and cook into the broth.
Wine or brandy
Adds acidity and aromatic depth to the finished soup.

The step that matters

Skimming the broth. Skimming removes the foam and fat that rise during simmering, keeping the broth clear and preventing a greasy, cloudy soup.

Swap the onion

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (celery, carrot, turnip, allspice, marjoram, lemon, thyme):

  1. Parsnipfits better
  2. Leekfits better
  3. Arrowrootfits better
  4. Onionthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against celery, carrot, turnip, allspice, marjoram, lemon, thyme. 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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