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Ox-cheek Soup

A hearty soup made with ox cheek, ham, butter, vegetables, and herbs, simmered and served with a French roll crust.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 16 ingredients
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Ox-cheek Soup

Why it works: Parsnip and carrot 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 the base

  1. Lay ham and butter at the bottom of a large stewpan.

  2. Break the bones of the ox cheek.

  3. Wash the ox cheek clean.

  4. Place the ox cheek on top of the ham.

  5. Add all chopped vegetables except one head of celery.

  6. Set the stewpan over low heat for 30 minutes.

  7. Pour in the water.

  8. Simmer until reduced to 4 quarts.

Strain and thicken

  1. Remove the meat from the cheek.

  2. Strain the soup into another stewpan.

  3. Thicken the soup with flour.

  4. Add the sliced head of celery.

  5. Simmer until the celery is tender.

Serve

  1. Cut the meat into small square pieces.

  2. Pour the soup over the meat.

  3. Serve with the crust of a French roll.

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. Parsnip + carrottop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together1,097 recipes

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

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

    Shared aroma: myristicin (spice, warm).

  3. Parsnip + celerytop 3% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together561 recipes

    Shared aroma: myristicin (spice, warm).

  4. Carrot + clovetop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together5,873 recipes

    Shared aroma: cuminaldehyde (Spicy, cumin).

  5. Parsnip + clovetop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together306 recipes

    Shared aroma: myrcene (balsamic, herbaceous).

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

What each ingredient does

Ox cheek
Slow simmering breaks its connective tissue into gelatin, giving the soup body and tender meat.
Butter
Adds fat that carries flavour and gives the soup a rich mouthfeel.
Ham or bacon
Contributes savoury, salty depth that seasons the broth as it cooks.
Onions
Softens and sweetens as it cooks, forming the aromatic base of the soup.
Carrots
Release natural sugars during long cooking, adding sweetness and body to the broth.
Celery
Adds savoury, vegetal aroma and some texture to the finished soup.

The step that matters

Simmer until reduced to 4 quarts. A gentle simmer slowly converts the cheek's collagen into gelatin, giving body. Boiling hard makes the soup cloudy and the meat tough.

Swap the mace

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

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

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