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Portable Soup

A dried soup made from beef or other meat, simmered for hours, thickened, cut into squares, and dried.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 3 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

Ingredients

Directions

Make the stock

  1. Place the meat in a digester or a common stewpot and cover with cold liquor.

  2. Slowly bring to a boil, skimming off the scum and adding a little cold water as needed.

  3. Once no more scum rises, cover the pot and let it boil for 8 to 10 hours.

  4. Strain the liquid through a fine sieve into a stone pan and let it cool.

Reduce the gravy

  1. Remove any fat from the top and transfer the gravy to a well-tinned copper stewpan, avoiding sediment.

  2. Add the black pepper and boil briskly with the lid off, skimming any scum that forms.

  3. When thickened to about a quart, transfer to a smaller stewpan and simmer until it reaches a thick syrup consistency.

  4. Test by placing a few drops on a cold spoon; if it sets into a stiff jelly, it's done.

Set and dry

  1. Pour into small pots with lids or a flat dish to a depth of ¼ inch.

  2. Let cool, then cut into squares or shape in basins, and dry in a warm room for 8 to 10 days.

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 + muttontop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,373 recipes

    Shared aroma: trans-2-nonenal (cardboard, fatty).

  3. Mutton + peppertop 16% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together5,442 recipes

    Shared aroma: trans-2-nonenal (cardboard, fatty).

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

What each ingredient does

Beef shin
Breaks down during long boiling to release gelatin and rich flavour into the stock.
Black pepper
Adds aroma and sharp spiciness that carries through the concentrated stock.

The step that matters

Testing the set on a cold spoon. The stock must be reduced until its gelatin sets firmly when cooled. Stopping too early leaves a runny product that will not hold its shape or dry into a firm jelly, while over-reducing makes it hard and brittle.

“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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