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English Ox-cheek-soup

A soup of ox cheek, carrots, onion, aromatics, chervil, celery, beef, egg, and Madeira wine.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 11 ingredients
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Why it works: Thyme and parsley match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 9,057 recipes. Both carry cuminaldehyde, which smells Spicy, cumin. The science ↓

English Ox-cheek-soup

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the head

  1. Remove the muzzle from the ox-head and steep the head in water for 1 hour without boning it.

  2. Divide the head in two and place in a stockpot with water; bring to a boil.

  3. Drain the meat, refresh it in cold water, and return it to the stockpot, covering with light broth or water.

  4. Boil the liquid, skim, and remove it back.

Make the broth

  1. After 1 hour, add the carrots, onion, aromatics, chervil, and celery.

  2. Continue boiling until the meat is tender, then drain the head and let the meat cool under a light press.

  3. Strain the broth through a cloth, skim off the fat, and let it settle before decanting.

  4. Pour 2 quarts of the broth into a stewpan, clarify with the chopped beef, egg, and Madeira, and pass through a sieve.

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. Thyme + parsleytop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together9,057 recipes

    Shared aroma: cuminaldehyde (Spicy, cumin).

  2. Carrot + parsleytop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together8,053 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2,4-decadienal (seaweed).

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

    Shared aroma: myristicin (spice, warm).

  4. Parsley + cherviltop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together774 recipes

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

  5. Parsley + celerytop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together6,810 recipes

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

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

What each ingredient does

Ox-head
Provides the meat and gelatinous body that gives the soup its substance and richness.
Chopped lean beef
Collects fine particles as it clarifies the broth, leaving it clear.
Egg
Its white binds with impurities during clarifying, so they can be strained out for a clear broth.
Madeira wine
Adds sweetness and aroma to the clarified broth.
Carrots
Contribute natural sweetness and flavor to the broth as they simmer.
Onion
Adds savory depth and aroma to the broth as it simmers.

The step that matters

Clarifying the broth with beef, egg and Madeira. The egg white and chopped beef must be stirred in and left to set, not boiled hard, so impurities cling to them. Stirring them through too early or boiling too vigorously leaves the broth cloudy.

Swap the onion

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (carrot, thyme, parsley, chervil, celery, beef, egg):

  1. Leekfits better
  2. Parsnipfits better
  3. Shallotfits better
  4. Onionthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against carrot, thyme, parsley, chervil, celery, beef, egg. 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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