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Portable Soup

A soup made from beef, veal, fowls, and spices, simmered, strained, thickened, and dried into cakes for portable consumption.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 7 ingredients
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Why it works: Beef and pepper are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 10% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 18,971 recipes. Both carry 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine, which smells earthy, pea. The science ↓

Portable Soup

Oven, in the book's wordsA cool oven

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare and simmer

  1. Combine water, beef, veal, and fowls in a large pot.

  2. Break the bones and cut the meat into small pieces.

  3. Season with black pepper, Jamaica pepper, and mace.

  4. Cover the pot tightly.

  5. Simmer for 12 to 14 hours.

Strain and reduce

  1. Strain the mixture the next day.

  2. Remove any sediment.

  3. Boil the liquid gently in an uncovered saucepan.

  4. Stir frequently until thick.

Dry and store

  1. Pour the thickened soup into saucers, filling them halfway.

  2. Allow the soup to cool.

  3. Dry the cakes on flannel before the fire or in the sun.

  4. Store the dried cakes in a tin box with white paper between each.

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. Beef + peppertop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together18,971 recipes

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

  2. Beef + vealtop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together3,784 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2,6-nonadienal (cucumber, green).

  3. Pepper + macetop 16% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together12,257 recipes

    Shared aroma: myristicin (spice, warm).

  4. Veal + macetop 18% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together3,761 recipes

    Shared aroma: alpha-pinene (pine, turpentine).

  5. Veal + peppertop 19% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together10,049 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).

Pepper and mace barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 12,257 recipes: they work on texture and structure more than aroma.

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

What each ingredient does

Shin of beef
Breaks down into gelatin and flavour, giving the soup its body and richness.
Knuckle of veal
Adds collagen, which dissolves into gelatin to thicken the stock when reduced.
Fowls
Contribute meaty flavour and gelatin to the broth.
Whole black pepper
Adds warm, pungent aroma and background heat to the soup.
Mace
Adds a warm, aromatic spice note that complements the meat flavour.

The step that matters

Stir frequently until thick. As the liquid reduces, sugars and gelatin concentrate and can scorch on the bottom of the pan. Frequent stirring prevents burning and keeps the texture smooth as it thickens.

Swap the mace

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

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

Fit is the average pairing score against beef, veal, 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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