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Soup

Ox-cheek Soup

A soup made from ox cheek simmered with ham, celery, onions, carrots, parsnip and mace, with vermicelli added.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 12 ingredients
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Ox-cheek Soup

Why it works: Carrot and parsnip match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 1,097 recipes. Both carry 2-isobutyl-3-methoxypyrazine, which smells green bell pepper, earthy. The science ↓

Ox-cheek Soup

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Break the bones and wash the ox cheek thoroughly.

  2. In a stewpan, melt the butter and place the cheek with the fleshy side down.

  3. Add the ham, celery, onions, carrots, parsnip, and mace.

  4. Cook over moderate heat for 15 minutes.

  5. Pour in the water and let it simmer until reduced to 2 quarts.

Finish the soup

  1. For soup, strain and add the white part of celery and browning for color.

  2. Scald the vermicelli, add to the soup, and boil for 10 minutes.

  3. Serve in a tureen with the crust of a French roll.

Stew variation

  1. For stew, remove the cheek, add boiled turnip and carrot, and toasted bread cubes.

  2. Strain the soup over the meat and serve.

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.

Photo for illustrative purposes only · Contact us to use it

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. Carrot + parsniptop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together1,097 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-isobutyl-3-methoxypyrazine (green bell pepper, earthy).

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

    Shared aroma: myristicin (spice, warm).

  3. Celery + parsniptop 3% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together561 recipes

    Shared aroma: myristicin (spice, warm).

  4. Celery + peppertop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together16,012 recipes

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

  5. Carrot + peppertop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together14,555 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

Ox cheek
Provides the rich, gelatinous meat and body that flavours the broth.
Butter
Fat that carries flavour and helps soften the vegetables at the start.
Onions
Add sweetness and depth as they cook down into the broth.
Celery
Adds aromatic, savoury flavour to the soup base.
Vermicelli
Thickens the soup slightly and adds a starchy texture.

The step that matters

Simmering the water down to 2 quarts. A slow simmer extracts gelatin and flavour from the bones and meat gradually. Boiling hard can cloud the broth and reduce it unevenly, so the reduction should be gentle and steady.

Swap the mace

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (butter, ham, celery, onion, carrot, parsnip, pepper):

  1. Parsleyfits better
  2. Thymefits better
  3. Marjoramfits better
  4. Macethe original

Fit is the average pairing score against butter, ham, celery, onion, carrot, parsnip, 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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