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Family Soup

A hearty soup made with beef tongue, shin, bones, root vegetables, rice, and seasonings.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 12 ingredients
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Why it works: Turnip and parsnip match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 590 recipes. Both carry coumarin, which smells sweet, hay. The science ↓

Family Soup

Ingredients

Directions

Make the broth

  1. In a large pot, combine the cold tongue, shin of beef, any leftover meat or bones, turnips, carrots, onions, parsnip, celery, and water.

  2. Simmer for 4 hours, allowing the flavors to meld and the goodness to be drawn from the meat.

  3. Strain the soup and let it cool to allow the fat to rise.

Finish and serve

  1. When ready to serve, skim off the fat and add the soft parts of the tongue and the kernels.

  2. Slice in a small amount of fresh carrot, turnip, and onion; stew until the vegetables are tender.

  3. Serve with toasted bread.

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. Turnip + parsniptop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together590 recipes

    Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).

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

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

  3. Carrot + celerytop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together10,173 recipes

    Shared aroma: myristicin (spice, warm).

  4. Turnip + carrottop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together8,002 recipes

    Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).

  5. Turnip + celerytop 2% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together4,418 recipes

    Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).

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

What each ingredient does

Shin of beef
Releases flavor and gelatin into the broth during the long simmer, giving body to the soup.
Turnips
Contribute sweetness and body to the broth as they cook down during the simmer.
Carrots
Add natural sweetness and aroma to the broth during the long simmer.
Onions
Build savory depth and aroma in the broth as they soften and release their sugars.
Rice
Thickens the soup slightly as its starch releases during cooking.

The step that matters

Cooling and skimming the strained soup. Cooling lets the fat rise to the surface where it can be removed cleanly. Skimming before adding the tender parts keeps the broth light and prevents a greasy texture.

Swap the onion

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (beef, meat, turnip, carrot, parsnip, celery, rice):

  1. Leekfits better
  2. Beetrootfits better
  3. Lettucefits better
  4. Onionthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against beef, meat, turnip, carrot, parsnip, celery, rice. 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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