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Vegetable Soup

A hearty soup made with beef, potatoes, tomatoes, corn, turnip, cabbage, and seasonings.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 9 ingredients
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Vegetable Soup

Why it works: Turnip and cabbage match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 2% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 897 recipes. Both carry coumarin, which smells sweet, hay. The science ↓

Vegetable Soup

Ingredients

Directions

  1. Boil the beef or beef bone in 2 quarts of water for 2 to 3 hours.

  2. Add the chopped potatoes, tomatoes, scored corn, turnip, and cabbage.

  3. Season with salt and pepper to taste.

  4. If desired, thicken the soup with cream and flour.

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.

Photo for illustrative purposes only · Contact us to use it

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 + cabbagetop 2% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together897 recipes

    Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).

  2. Potato + corntop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together938 recipes

    Shared aroma: (e)-2-octenal (fatty, green).

  3. Potato + tomatotop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together2,798 recipes

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

  4. Cabbage + peppertop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together4,081 recipes

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

  5. Tomato + corntop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together2,099 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).

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

What each ingredient does

Beef or beef bone
Releases savory flavor and body into the broth during long simmering.
Potatoes
Soften as they cook and add starch that gives the soup body.
Tomatoes
Add acidity and a tangy depth that balances the rich broth.
Corn
Adds sweetness and a fresh, tender bite to the soup.
Cabbage
Contributes mild sweetness and soft texture as it cooks down.

The step that matters

Boiling the beef for 2 to 3 hours. Gentle, sustained simmering is what extracts flavor and collagen from the beef into the broth. Boiling too hard can toughen the meat and cloud the broth, so keep it at a steady simmer until tender.

Swap the turnip

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (beef, potato, tomato, corn, cabbage, pepper, cream):

  1. Capsicumfits better
  2. Carrotfits better
  3. Spinachfits better
  4. Turnipthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against beef, potato, tomato, corn, cabbage, pepper, cream. 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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