Why it works: Carrot and celery 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 ↓
Beef Soup
Ingredients
Directions
Make the stock
Crack the bones of the beef and extract the marrow, adding it to the soup pot.
Combine the beef, bones, and water in a large pot and heat gradually.
Let it boil slowly for at least 6 hours, checking occasionally to ensure water levels. If water level drops too low, replenish with boiling water carefully.
After 7 hours, remove the pot from heat and cover it until the next morning.
An hour before serving, remove the meat for other uses and skim off the fat from the stock.
Reheat the stock and add a little salt to bring up the scum, skimming it off.
Prepare the vegetables
Prepare the vegetables by stewing them in just enough water to cover until they break apart.
Cook the cabbage in two waters, discarding the first.
Cook a whole carrot until done, then set aside to cool.
Add the remaining vegetables and their cooking water to the soup.
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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Carrot + celerytop 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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Turnip + cabbagetop 2% of all pairsSmell alikestrongCooked together897 recipes
Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).
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Turnip + celerytop 2% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together4,418 recipes
Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).
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Celery + tomatotop 4% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together3,377 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
- Beef shin
- Slow simmering breaks down connective tissue, giving the stock body and tender meat.
- Beef bones
- Bones and marrow add gelatin and rich flavour to the stock as it simmers.
- Tomatoes
- Add acidity and a bright, savoury flavour to the finished soup.
- Green corn
- Adds sweetness and body to the soup as it cooks.
The step that matters
Skimming the stock. Fat and scum rise to the surface as the stock simmers. Removing them after chilling and again after reheating keeps the broth clear and prevents a greasy, cloudy result.
Swap the cabbage
How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (beef, carrot, turnip, corn, celery, tomato):
- Parsnipfits better
- Capsicumfits better
- Okrafits better
- Cabbagethe original
Fit is the average pairing score against beef, carrot, turnip, corn, celery, tomato. 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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