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Minced Beef Soup

A soup made with minced beef, mutton bones, carrots, onions, sweet herbs, and asparagus.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 10 ingredients
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Why it works: Carrot and pepper match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 6% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 14,555 recipes. Both carry 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine, which smells earthy, pea. The science ↓

Minced Beef Soup

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the broth

  1. Crack the mutton bones into splinters and place them in a pot with 3 quarts of cold water.

  2. Boil for 2 hours, then strain the broth.

Make the soup

  1. Rub the vegetables to a pulp.

  2. Add the strained broth and the remaining 2 quarts of cold water to the minced beef.

  3. Bring the mixture to a boil, then cook gently for 1 hour.

  4. Strain again, pressing hard to extract all liquid.

  5. Reserve some beef for force-meat.

  6. Season the remaining beef with salt and pepper, then pour back half the soup over it.

  7. Store the soup in a cool place.

Finish and serve

  1. Chop the herbs and add them to the soup with additional salt and pepper.

  2. Boil the soup and skim for 15 minutes.

  3. Serve the soup over strips of buttered crisp toast.

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 + peppertop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together14,555 recipes

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

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

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

  3. Beef + oniontop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together17,092 recipes

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

  4. Carrot + asparagustop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together571 recipes

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

  5. Onion + asparagustop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together1,212 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

Lean beef
Provides the main body and meaty flavor of the soup.
Mutton bones
Release gelatin and savory flavor into the broth during long simmering.
Onions
Add sweetness and aroma as they soften into the broth.
Carrots
Add natural sweetness and body when rubbed to a pulp.

The step that matters

Skim for 15 minutes. Skimming removes foam and loose fat that rise to the surface while the soup boils, keeping the broth clear and clean-tasting.

Swap the asparagus

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

  1. Potatofits better
  2. Turnipfits better
  3. Leekfits better
  4. Asparagusthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against beef, mutton, carrot, onion, pepper. 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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