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Ox-heel Soup

A soup made from ox heel, onions, turnips, carrots, eschalots, thyme, parsley, lemon peel, bay leaves, wine, and mushroom catchup.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 15 ingredients
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Why it works: Carrot and parsley match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 8,053 recipes. Both carry 2,4-decadienal, which smells seaweed. The science ↓

Ox-heel Soup

Ingredients

Directions

Make the broth

  1. Place the unboiled ox heel, trimmed bones, and water in a stew pot.

  2. Add onions, turnips, carrots, eschalots, thyme, and parsley.

  3. Cover and simmer gently for at least 7 hours, skimming off fat and scum.

  4. Strain the broth through a sieve into a clean saucepan.

Thicken and finish

  1. Melt butter in the saucepan, then stir in enough flour to make a stiff paste.

  2. Gradually add the broth, bringing it to a boil.

  3. Strain again, then add lemon peel, bay leaves, boiled heel meat, wine, and mushroom catchup.

  4. Simmer for an additional 30 minutes 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. Carrot + parsleytop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together8,053 recipes

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

  2. Lemon + parsleytop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together14,037 recipes

    Shared aroma: beta-phellandrene (minty, terpene).

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

    Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).

  4. Turnip + parsleytop 2% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together2,842 recipes

    Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).

  5. Onion + turniptop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together7,585 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 heel
Gives the broth body and richness as its collagen and marrow break down during long simmering.
Butter
Enriches the soup and, with flour, forms the roux that thickens the broth.
Flour
Thickens the broth when cooked in melted butter to form a roux.
Onions
Add savory sweetness and aroma to the broth as they cook down.
Carrots
Add natural sweetness and body to the broth during simmering.
Turnips
Add mild sweetness and earthy flavour to the broth during simmering.

The step that matters

Skimming off fat and scum during the long simmer. Fat and foam rising during a long simmer can make the broth greasy and cloudy. Regular skimming keeps the soup clear and clean-tasting.

Swap the lemon

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

  1. Avocadofits about as well
  2. Lemonthe original
  3. Limefits about as well
  4. Coconutfits less well

Fit is the average pairing score against meat, onion, turnip, carrot, parsley, butter, flour. 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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