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Soup

Wee and Meat Soup

A soup of beef, rice, water, pepper, broth herbs, and cinnamon.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 6 ingredients
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Why it works: Rice and cinnamon match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 4% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 2,137 recipes. Both carry guaiacol, which smells smoky, sweet. The science ↓

Wee and Meat Soup

Ingredients

Directions

  1. In a pot, combine 2 quarts of water, 1 pound of rice, a little black pepper, and broth herbs.

  2. Cover and simmer gently.

  3. Add 2 pounds of beef and a little cinnamon.

  4. Boil until the flavors are well combined.

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. Rice + cinnamontop 4% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together2,137 recipes

    Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).

  2. Pepper + cinnamontop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together4,890 recipes

    Shared aroma: methyl cinnamate (strawberry).

  3. Pepper + beeftop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together18,971 recipes

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

  4. Rice + beeftop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,265 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-acetyl-1-pyrroline (popcorn, roasted).

  5. Rice + peppertop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together8,379 recipes

    Shared aroma: trans-2-nonenal (cardboard, fatty).

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

What each ingredient does

Rice
Releases starch as it cooks, thickening the broth and giving the soup body and heartiness.
Beef
Adds savory, meaty flavor and protein that becomes tender with gentle, sustained heat.

The step that matters

Keeping the heat gentle while the beef cooks. Rapid boiling toughens meat fibers and can break up rice grains, so a gentle simmer keeps the beef tender and the soup's texture even.

Swap the cinnamon

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (rice, pepper, beef):

  1. Turmericfits better
  2. Celeryfits better
  3. Parsleyfits better
  4. Cinnamonthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against rice, pepper, beef. 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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