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Soup for Invalids

A hearty beef and mutton soup with vegetables and optional rice, tomatoes, beans, and celery, set to jelly.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 11 ingredients
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Why it works: Tomato and beans match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 2,713 recipes. Both carry 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine, which smells earthy, pea. The science ↓

Soup for Invalids

Ingredients

Directions

Make the broth

  1. In a large pot, combine the beef shank, mutton, cold water, and salt.

  2. Boil until the meat shreds and the liquid reduces to about half.

  3. Remove the large bones from the pot.

Add the vegetables and rice

  1. Add the carrot, onions, and rice (or tomatoes, beans, and celery if using).

  2. Boil for 1 hour.

Strain and chill

  1. Strain thoroughly, pressing out all juices with a potato masher.

  2. Set the strained liquid in a cold place to jelly.

  3. Once cold, remove the fat from the surface.

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. Tomato + beanstop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together2,713 recipes

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

  2. Rice + beanstop 4% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together1,017 recipes

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

  3. Carrot + beanstop 4% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together1,443 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-isobutyl-3-methoxypyrazine (green bell pepper, earthy).

  4. Carrot + tomatotop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together3,606 recipes

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

  5. Carrot + oniontop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together21,601 recipes

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

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

What each ingredient does

Beef shank
Breaks down during boiling to give the broth its body and meaty flavour.
Mutton
Adds rich meat flavour and body to the broth as it simmers down.
Rice
Thickens the soup slightly as its starch releases during the hour of boiling.
Onions
Release sweetness and savoury depth into the broth as they cook.

The step that matters

Boil until the meat shreds and the liquid reduces to about half. Simmering long enough breaks down the connective tissue in the tough cuts, turning them tender and gelatin-rich. Reducing concentrates the flavour, which is needed for the broth to set into a jelly once chilled.

Swap the tomato

The recipe marks tomato as optional. How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (beef, mutton, carrot, onion, rice, coffee, beans):

  1. Potatofits about as well
  2. Tomatothe original
  3. Asparagusfits about as well
  4. Turnipfits about as well

Fit is the average pairing score against beef, mutton, carrot, onion, rice, coffee, beans. 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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