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Spring Vegetable Soup

A hearty beef broth with carrots, turnip, celery, leek, cauliflower, and peas.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 11 ingredients
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Why it works: Turnip and leek match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 1,046 recipes. Both carry coumarin, which smells sweet, hay. The science ↓

Spring Vegetable Soup

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the beef

  1. Cut all the meat from the beef and remove the fat.

  2. Break the bones in half and take out the marrow.

  3. Place the meat and bones in a large saucepan.

  4. Add 5 pints of water and 1 teaspoon of salt.

  5. Cover and bring to a boil quickly.

  6. Skim off any scum that rises.

  7. Reduce heat and let it simmer gently for 5 hours.

Add the vegetables

  1. Scrape and slice the carrots.

  2. Peel and slice the turnip.

  3. Wash and chop the celery and leek.

  4. Wash the cauliflower, soak in salted water for 2-3 minutes, then rinse and dry.

  5. Remove green leaves and stalk, and break into sprigs.

  6. Add the sliced carrots, celery, and leek to the soup an hour before serving.

  7. After 30 minutes, add the sliced turnip.

  8. After another 15 minutes, add the cauliflower sprigs.

Cook the peas

  1. In a separate pot, bring water to a boil.

  2. Add the shelled peas, 1 teaspoon of salt, and ¼ teaspoon of baking soda.

  3. Boil the peas for 15-20 minutes until soft, then drain.

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 + leektop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together1,046 recipes

    Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).

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

    Shared aroma: myristicin (spice, warm).

  3. Turnip + cauliflowertop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together286 recipes

    Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).

  4. Carrot + turniptop 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
Long simmering breaks down connective tissue, giving the broth body and rich flavor.
Bones (in the method)
Marrow and collagen release gelatin and depth into the broth during the long simmer.
Carrots
Add natural sweetness and hold their shape through the simmer.
Turnip
Contributes a mild, slightly peppery flavor and firm texture to the soup.
Cauliflower
Adds mild sweetness and a tender texture that softens in the hot broth.
Baking soda
Raises the pot's pH, helping the peas soften quickly and turn tender.

The step that matters

Skim off the scum after the boil. Foam that rises during the initial boil contains proteins and impurities; removing it keeps the broth clear and clean-tasting before the long simmer.

Swap the peas

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (beef, carrot, turnip, celery, leek, cauliflower):

  1. Lentilsfits better
  2. Beansfits better
  3. Chestnutfits about as well
  4. Peasthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against beef, carrot, turnip, celery, leek, cauliflower. 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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