Why it works: Carrot and celery match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 10,173 recipes. Both carry myristicin, which smells spice, warm. The science ↓
Fine Beef Soup
Ingredients
Directions
Prepare the broth
Prepare the soup a day in advance.
Wash the beef and cut off all the meat, breaking up the bones.
Place the meat and bones in a large pot.
Add 1½ pints of water for each pound of meat.
Sprinkle the meat with pepper and salt.
Cover and bring to a boil over moderate heat, skimming off any fat that rises.
Boil slowly for 8-9 hours, ensuring the soup does not stop boiling.
Avoid adding water during this time.
Once the meat is reduced to shreds, remove the pot from heat and let it sit for 15 minutes to settle.
Strain the soup into a large earthen pan.
Let it cool in a dry place overnight.
Finish and serve
The next day, boil the vegetables separately until tender.
Prepare tomatoes by peeling, chopping, and stewing until dissolved.
Combine the strained soup with the cooked vegetables and tomatoes before serving.
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.
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Carrot + celerytop 1% of all pairsSmell alikestrongCooked together10,173 recipes
Shared aroma: myristicin (spice, warm).
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Carrot + turniptop 1% of all pairsSmell alikestrongCooked together8,002 recipes
Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).
-
Turnip + celerytop 2% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together4,418 recipes
Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).
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Celery + tomatotop 4% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together3,377 recipes
Shared aroma: 4'-methylacetophenone (bitter almond).
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Pepper + celerytop 5% of all pairsSmell alikestrongCooked together16,012 recipes
Shared aroma: 4'-methylacetophenone (bitter almond).
Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs
What each ingredient does
- Fresh beef
- Breaks down into shreds during long simmering, releasing flavor and body into the broth.
- Beef bones
- Release gelatin and savory compounds into the water during long simmering, enriching the broth.
- Carrots, turnips, onions, celery
- Add body and sweetness to the broth when cooked until tender and combined with it.
- Tomatoes
- Add acidity and a fresh, savory flavor when stewed and combined with the soup.
The step that matters
Keep the soup at a steady boil without adding water. Long, continuous boiling breaks down collagen from the meat and bones into gelatin, giving body to the broth. Adding water mid-cook dilutes that flavor and stops the process from concentrating it.
Swap the tomato
The recipe marks tomato as optional. How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (beef, pepper, carrot, turnip, onion, celery):
- Leekfits better
- Parsnipfits better
- Okrafits better
- Tomatothe original
Fit is the average pairing score against beef, pepper, carrot, turnip, onion, celery. 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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