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Shin of Beef Soup

A soup made with beef shin, vegetables, and pearl barley.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 12 ingredients
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Why it works: Turnip and leek match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 1,046 recipes. Both carry coumarin, which smells sweet, hay. The science ↓

Shin of Beef Soup

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the beef

  1. Wash the beef in cold water and rub with salt and pepper.

  2. Place the beef in a soup pot and add water equal to the weight of the meat.

  3. Bring to a boil over moderate heat, skimming off any scum.

  4. Cover and simmer gently for 2 hours.

Make the soup

  1. Add the grated carrot, sliced turnip, sliced leek, chopped parsley, halved potatoes, and washed barley.

  2. Cover and simmer for 1 hour.

  3. Mix the flour with water to make a thickening and stir it into the soup.

  4. Cover and cook for an additional 15 minutes.

Serve

  1. Remove the meat from the soup.

  2. Discard the bones.

  3. Serve the meat on a dish garnished with parsley.

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. Turnip + leektop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together1,046 recipes

    Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).

  2. Carrot + parsleytop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together8,053 recipes

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

  3. Leek + barleytop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together142 recipes

    Shared aroma: 1-octen-3-ol (mushroom, earthy).

  4. Carrot + turniptop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together8,002 recipes

    Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).

  5. Pepper + parsleytop 2% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together34,122 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

Shin of beef
Provides the main body of meat and rich flavour as it simmers into the broth.
Pearl barley
Swells during simmering and thickens the soup while adding a chewy texture.
Wheat flour
Thickens the broth when stirred in with water, giving it a fuller body.
Potatoes
Soften during simmering, adding starch that gives body and mild sweetness to the soup.
Leek
Adds mild onion-like aroma and sweetness to the broth as it cooks.

The step that matters

Skimming the scum after the boil. Foam that rises as the broth comes to a boil contains impurities that can make the soup cloudy and taste off. Removing it early keeps the broth clean and clear.

Swap the potato

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (beef, pepper, carrot, turnip, leek, parsley, barley):

  1. Parsnipfits better
  2. Shallotfits better
  3. Chivefits better
  4. Potatothe original

Fit is the average pairing score against beef, pepper, carrot, turnip, leek, parsley, barley. 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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