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Soup for Invalids

A hearty beef and mutton soup with vegetables and optional rice, tomatoes, and beans, thickened by simmering and jellied.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 9 ingredients
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Why it works: Tomato and beans match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 2,713 recipes. Both carry 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine, which smells earthy, pea. The science ↓

Soup for Invalids

Ingredients

Directions

Make the broth

  1. Combine the beef shank, mutton, and cold water in a large pot.

  2. Add the salt and bring to a boil.

  3. Boil until the meat is shredded and the liquid is reduced by half.

  4. Remove the large bones from the pot.

Finish and clarify

  1. Add the carrot, onions, and rice (or tomatoes and beans if using).

  2. Boil for 1 hour.

  3. Strain the soup thoroughly.

  4. Press out all the juices using a potato masher.

  5. Set the soup in a cold place to cool until it jellies.

  6. Once cold, remove the fat from the surface.

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. Tomato + beanstop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together2,713 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).

  2. Rice + beanstop 4% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together1,017 recipes

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

  3. Carrot + beanstop 4% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together1,443 recipes

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

  4. Carrot + tomatotop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together3,606 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).

  5. Carrot + oniontop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together21,601 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).

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

What each ingredient does

Beef shank
Breaks down into meat and gelatin, giving the broth body and a rich flavor.
Mutton
Adds meaty flavor and richness to the broth as it simmers.
Rice
Thickens the soup slightly as its starch releases during boiling.
Onions
Contribute sweetness and aroma as they soften in the broth.
Carrot
Adds sweetness and color to the soup.

The step that matters

Boil until the meat is shredded and the liquid is reduced by half. Long simmering extracts collagen and flavor from the meat into the liquid. Stopping too early leaves a thin, weak broth, while reducing too far concentrates it excessively.

Swap the tomato

The recipe marks tomato as optional. How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (beef, mutton, carrot, onion, rice, coffee, beans):

  1. Potatofits about as well
  2. Tomatothe original
  3. Asparagusfits about as well
  4. Turnipfits about as well

Fit is the average pairing score against beef, mutton, carrot, onion, rice, coffee, beans. 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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