Why it works: Celery and carrot 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 ↓
Family Soup
Ingredients
Directions
Prepare the beef
Cut the beef into 3 pieces and wash it well.
In a large pot, combine the beef and water, adding salt.
Simmer the soup
Bring to a hard boil over a good fire for 8 hours.
Skim off the scum that rises to the surface.
Reduce heat and let it simmer steadily.
After 3 hours, add celery, carrots, onions, and cabbage (or substitute with more vegetables or tomatoes).
Cook for a total of at least 8 hours.
Remove the best part of the meat 2 hours before serving.
Strain the soup before serving.
Leftovers
For leftovers, simmer the soup for 30 minutes the next day.
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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Celery + carrottop 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).
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Cabbage + turniptop 2% of all pairsSmell alikestrongCooked together897 recipes
Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).
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Celery + turniptop 2% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together4,418 recipes
Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).
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Onion + turniptop 5% of all pairsSmell alikestrongCooked 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
- Beef shin or leg
- Long simmering breaks down connective tissue, giving tender meat and a rich, full-bodied broth.
- Celery
- Adds aromatic, savory flavor to the broth as it cooks down over many hours.
- Carrots
- Release natural sweetness and body into the broth during long cooking.
- Onions
- Build savory depth and sweetness; frying them first adds browned, caramelized flavor.
- Cabbage
- Adds mild sweetness and vegetable body to the soup.
The step that matters
Skim off the scum that rises to the surface. Proteins and impurities from the beef coagulate and rise as foam during the initial boil. Removing them keeps the broth clear and prevents a murky, off-flavored soup.
Swap the turnip
The recipe marks turnip as optional. How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (beef, celery, carrot, onion, cabbage):
- Turnipthe original
- Leekfits about as well
- Parsnipfits less well
- Potatofits less well
Fit is the average pairing score against beef, celery, carrot, onion, cabbage. 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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