Why it works: Beef and rice are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 10% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 2,265 recipes. Both carry 2-acetyl-1-pyrroline, which smells popcorn, roasted. The science ↓
Beef Soup
Ingredients
Directions
Make the soup
Combine beef and water in a pot, using 1⅓ times the desired soup volume of water.
Bring to a slow boil and skim off any foam.
Add a little coarse sea salt after skimming.
If the soup is too rich, add a little rice or sago.
Occasionally skim off the fat during cooking.
Finish and serve
After three hours, remove the beef.
Add noodles or dumplings and let it boil for a few more minutes.
Serve.
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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Beef + ricetop 10% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together2,265 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-acetyl-1-pyrroline (popcorn, roasted).
Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs
What each ingredient does
- Beef
- Provides the main flavour and body of the broth as it simmers slowly in water.
- Rice or sago
- Adds body and thickens the broth when it is too rich.
The step that matters
Skimming foam and fat. Foam and fat rise to the surface as the broth heats. Skimming them early and during cooking keeps the soup clearer and less greasy.
“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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