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Vegetable Soup

A hearty soup made with beef, barley, and assorted vegetables simmered for hours.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 11 ingredients
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Vegetable Soup

Why it works: Carrot and parsnip match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 1,097 recipes. Both carry 2-isobutyl-3-methoxypyrazine, which smells green bell pepper, earthy. The science ↓

Vegetable Soup

Ingredients

Directions

Make the soup

  1. Place the beef in a large pot with the cold water.

  2. Bring to a gentle boil and remove any scum that forms.

  3. Add the salt, onion, carrot, parsnip, celery, tomato, cabbage, parsley, and barley.

  4. Cook for 6 hours.

Serve

  1. Serve with slices of toasted bread.

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.

Photo for illustrative purposes only · Contact us to use it

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. Carrot + parsniptop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together1,097 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-isobutyl-3-methoxypyrazine (green bell pepper, earthy).

  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. Celery + parsleytop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together6,810 recipes

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

  5. Parsnip + parsleytop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together484 recipes

    Shared aroma: myristicin (spice, warm).

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

What each ingredient does

Beef
Provides the main protein and rich meaty flavor as it simmers in the broth.
Barley
Adds body and chewy texture as it absorbs liquid and softens during the long cook.
Onion
Builds savory depth as its sugars soften and mellow during simmering.
Carrot
Adds natural sweetness and color while holding its shape through the long simmer.
Tomato
Contributes acidity and body, rounding out the broth's flavor.

The step that matters

Skimming the scum after the boil. Foam that rises as the beef heats is mostly coagulated proteins and impurities. Removing it early keeps the broth clearer and cleaner-tasting over the long cook.

Swap the cabbage

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (beef, onion, carrot, parsnip, celery, tomato, parsley):

  1. Turnipfits better
  2. Leekfits better
  3. Okrafits better
  4. Cabbagethe original

Fit is the average pairing score against beef, onion, carrot, parsnip, celery, tomato, parsley. 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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