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Ox Heel Soup

A hearty soup made from ox heels, vegetables, herbs, butter, lemon, wine, and mushroom ketchup, optionally with tripe or rice.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 15 ingredients
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Why it works: Parsley and thyme 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 ↓

Ox Heel Soup

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the stock

  1. Obtain the ox heels from a tripe shop, preferably when they have boiled for about an hour.

  2. In a large pot, combine the ox heels with 1 quart of water or broth, onion, shallot, turnip, carrot, and herbs.

  3. Cover the pot and simmer slowly for several hours, skimming off any fat that rises.

  4. Once the meat is tender and separates easily from the bones, remove the heels and strain the soup.

  5. Cut the meat from the heels and return it to the soup.

Finish the soup

  1. Thicken the soup with 4 tablespoons of butter, then add the lemon rind and bay leaves.

  2. Simmer for an additional 30 minutes, then remove the bay leaves.

  3. Stir in the lemon juice, wine, and mushroom ketchup.

  4. If using, add the tripe and simmer for another 30 minutes.

  5. Optionally, stir in boiled rice before serving.

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. Parsley + thymetop 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. Shallot + parsleytop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together3,737 recipes

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

  4. Shallot + thymetop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together1,476 recipes

    Shared aroma: eucalyptol (eucalyptus, herbal).

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

Ox heels
Release gelatin and collagen into the broth, giving body and a rich mouthfeel as they simmer.
Butter
Adds richness and a silky texture that rounds out the thinned broth.
Lemon juice
Adds acidity that brightens the savory, meaty flavour of the soup.
Wine
Adds acidity and aromatic depth to the finished soup.
Mushroom ketchup
Adds savoury, umami depth to the broth.

The step that matters

Skimming the fat while simmering. Fat that rises during long simmering can make the soup greasy and cloudy. Skimming it as it forms keeps the broth clear and clean-tasting.

Swap the onion

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (meat, shallot, turnip, carrot, parsley, thyme, butter):

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

Fit is the average pairing score against meat, shallot, turnip, carrot, parsley, thyme, butter. 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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