Vegetable-Beef Soup With a High Scorching and a Wink

Crucial factor to find out about Kansas Metropolis steak soup is that it’s neither a chili nor a beef stew. If something, it’s vegetable-beef soup with a high hat and a wink.

The dish originated on the Plaza III, a 1963 steakhouse that, over the many years, grew to become higher recognized for its soup than its steaks. Plaza III closed in 2018, however the soup survives: Variants are on menus at many Kansas Metropolis steakhouses at present.

The unique recipe stays a secret, regardless of quite a few claims to have cracked the code in cookbooks and newspapers from Hartford to Orlando. However the components of a very good Kansas Metropolis steak soup are simply identifiable. The broth must be shiny and tangy—roux-thickened however not sludgy—and teeming with browned, chewy morsels of steak.

With these ideas in thoughts, I shortly rejected each floor sirloin—widespread in copycat recipes, however not in KC steakhouses—and conventional stew cuts of beef like chuck roast, which evoke extra pot roast than porterhouse. 

After testing nearly each minimize in my butcher’s case, I landed on a transparent reply. The very best steak for a Kansas Metropolis steak soup is a Kansas Metropolis strip (New York strip for you coastal elites). Strip steaks have even marbling and fewer pockets of fats than different cuts, making them supreme for bite-size items with constant taste and chew. 

Browning these items in butter leans additional into the steakhouse vibe whereas lending the soup a nutty richness. To maintain the give attention to the steak, the veggies are easy: a typical mirepoix and a meaty portion of sliced mushrooms. 

A fast observe on beef broth, which is noticeably absent from the dish. Kenji has written in regards to the superiority of store-bought rooster vs. beef inventory earlier than, however I nonetheless examined variations of this soup utilizing beef broth, beef consomme, or a mixture of beef and rooster shares. Each model utilizing store-bought beef broth had the dominant, bouillon-esque taste of canned soup. In case you have just a few kilos of excellent soup bones in your freezer and need to make your individual beef inventory, I gained’t cease you. However for many of us, rooster inventory goes to be a greater base. I promise, you gained’t miss the meat, because of the opposite taste boosters on this soup.

On to these taste boosters: Dried porcini mushrooms, a frequent flyer in steakhouse dry rubs, are the umami spine, bringing the acidity of the tomato-rich broth all the way down to earth. Many recipes for Kansas Metropolis steak soup name for Kitchen Bouquet, a liquid seasoning that’s largely caramel shade by quantity with a dominant taste of burnt marshmallow. I rejected it pretty early on in testing and experimented with different umami boosters: Maggi, Marmite, and soy sauce. They had been scrumptious in their very own proper, however they resulted in a soup that tasted much less like Kansas Metropolis steak soup and extra like, nicely, Maggi, marmite, and soy sauce.

Ultimately, I reached for one more “liquid seasoning” with midcentury vibes, one I already had in my fridge: A-1 Steak Sauce. Whereas I wouldn’t essentially suggest it for steaks, a small quantity lends this soup additional physique, shade, and steakhouse twang. An equal quantity of Worcestershire helps amp up the vinegar and molasses notes. 

The opposite trick? A beneficiant pour of sherry, an addition impressed by the steak soup at one other basic KC steakhouse, The Golden Ox. Oloroso sherry provides toasty, prune-like flavors to enhance the dish’s bolder, brassier notes. You’ll be able to go away it out, however the soup gained’t have the identical depth. 

It’s vegetable beef soup with a high hat and a wink, proper? The sherry’s the highest hat. The A-1’s the wink.

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