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Brown Stock

A beef and veal stock simmered for eight hours with cloves, peppercorns, and salt.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 6 ingredients
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Why it works: Beef and veal are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 11% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 3,784 recipes. Both carry 2,6-nonadienal, which smells cucumber, green. The science ↓

Brown Stock

Ingredients

Directions

Simmer the stock

  1. Combine the beef shins, veal shin, cloves, peppercorns, salt, and water in a large pot.

  2. Bring to a boil and simmer for 8 hours.

  3. Strain the stock into a container and let it cool.

  4. Remove the fat.

Clarify the stock

  1. Boil the stock again for a clear soup.

  2. Beat 2 eggs with their shells.

  3. Stir the eggs into the soup.

  4. Boil for 30 minutes, then remove from heat.

Finish the soup

  1. Add 1 pint of cold water.

  2. Let it sit for 30 minutes, then strain it.

  3. Add vermicelli or macaroni (optional).

  4. Boil for 20 minutes.

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 + vealtop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together3,784 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2,6-nonadienal (cucumber, green).

  2. Beef + clovetop 18% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together5,462 recipes

    Shared aroma: cuminaldehyde (Spicy, cumin).

  3. Veal + clovetop 25% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together2,258 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl caproate (fruity, apple peel).

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

What each ingredient does

Beef shins
Bone and connective tissue release gelatin as they simmer, giving the stock body.
Veal shin
Bone and connective tissue release gelatin as they simmer, adding body to the stock.
Eggs (in the method)
Egg proteins set as they heat, trapping cloudy particles so the stock becomes clear.
Cloves
Contribute a warm, aromatic flavour to the stock.
Peppercorns
Contribute a mild, spicy aroma to the stock.

The step that matters

Stir the eggs into the soup. As the beaten eggs heat, their proteins set and gather suspended particles, which rise and can be strained out. This is what clears the stock. Stirring the eggs in evenly keeps them from clumping, so the clarifying effect spreads through the whole pot.

Swap the clove

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (beef, veal):

  1. Pepperfits better
  2. Celeryfits better
  3. Tarragonfits better
  4. Clovethe original

Fit is the average pairing score against beef, veal. 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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