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Caxxed Roast Beef, Soup

A soup made by simmering canned roast beef in cold water, then straining the broth.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 6 ingredients
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Why it works: Beef and pepper are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 10% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 18,971 recipes. Both carry 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine, which smells earthy, pea. The science ↓

Caxxed Roast Beef, Soup

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare and simmer

  1. Cut the beef into small pieces and add it to the cold water.

  2. Bring the mixture to a boil, then simmer gently for 30 minutes.

Skim and strain

  1. Skim off the fat.

  2. Strain, extracting all the meat juice and gelatin.

Season and finish

  1. Season with salt and pepper to taste.

  2. Add beef extract for improved flavor, if desired.

  3. If rice or grains are unavailable, add powdered hard bread.

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. Beef + peppertop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together18,971 recipes

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

  2. Beef + breadtop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together4,032 recipes

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

  3. Pepper + breadtop 16% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together20,964 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).

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

What each ingredient does

Roast beef
Provides the main meat flavor, juices and gelatin that give the broth its body.
Cold water
Slowly draws flavor and gelatin out of the beef as it heats, forming the broth.
Beef extract
Adds concentrated savory beef flavor to deepen the broth.
Powdered hard bread
Absorbs liquid and adds body in place of rice or grains.

The step that matters

Simmer gently rather than boiling hard. Vigorous boiling churns fat into the liquid, clouding the broth and toughening the meat. A gentle simmer keeps the broth clearer and the meat tender, and makes skimming the fat easier.

“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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