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Meat Soups

A hearty soup made with beef, bones, carrots, turnips, cabbage, corn, celery, tomatoes, and salt.

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

Meat Soups

Ingredients

Directions

Make the stock

  1. Prepare the stock a day before by placing beef and bones in a pot with water.

  2. Heat gradually and let it boil slowly for at least 6 hours, replenishing with boiling water if necessary.

  3. After 7 hours, remove the pot and cover it until the next morning.

  4. An hour before serving, remove the meat and set aside for another use.

  5. Skim the fat from the stock and bring it to a boil, adding salt to help remove scum.

Prepare the vegetables

  1. Prepare the vegetables by slicing and stewing them in just enough water to cover until they break apart.

  2. Cook the cabbage separately in two waters, discarding the first.

  3. Cook a whole carrot until done, then set aside to cool.

Combine and finish

  1. Add the remaining vegetables and their cooking water to the stock.

  2. Return the pot to the heat and boil slowly for 30 minutes.

  3. Strain the soup without pressing the vegetables.

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. Carrot + celerytop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together10,173 recipes

    Shared aroma: myristicin (spice, warm).

  2. Carrot + turniptop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together8,002 recipes

    Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).

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

    Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).

  4. Turnip + celerytop 2% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together4,418 recipes

    Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).

  5. Celery + tomatotop 4% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked 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 with bones
Gives the stock its body and rich, savory flavor as it simmers slowly for hours.
Corn
Adds natural sweetness and a tender, starchy body to the soup.
Tomatoes
Contribute acidity and a fresh, tangy flavor that balances the rich stock.
Celery
Adds aromatic, savory flavor and a little fibrous texture.

The step that matters

Skimming the fat and scum from the stock. Fat and scum that rise to the surface can make the broth greasy and cloudy. Skimming before the final boil keeps the stock clear and clean-tasting.

Swap the cabbage

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (beef, carrot, turnip, corn, celery, tomato):

  1. Parsnipfits better
  2. Capsicumfits better
  3. Okrafits better
  4. 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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