Why it works: Meat and beef are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 12% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 2,533 recipes. Both carry 1-octen-3-one, which smells mushroom, metallic. The science ↓
Soup Stock
Ingredients
Directions
Prepare
Cut the shank into several pieces and have the bone cracked at the butcher's.
Wash the meat and place it in a large pot with cold water and salt.
Simmer
Bring to a boil, skimming off the scum that rises.
Reduce heat and let it simmer for 10 hours.
Strain and chill
Strain the stock into a container and refrigerate overnight.
In the morning, skim off the fat and return the clear stock to the pot.
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.
Photo for illustrative purposes only · Contact us to use it
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.
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Meat + beeftop 12% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together2,533 recipes
Shared aroma: 1-octen-3-one (mushroom, metallic).
Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs
What each ingredient does
- Beef shank
- Cracked bone and connective tissue release gelatin, giving the stock body and a silky mouthfeel.
- Cold water
- Acts as the solvent that slowly extracts flavor, collagen and gelatin from the meat and bone.
The step that matters
Simmer gently after the boil. Once the heat is reduced, keep the stock at a gentle simmer rather than a rolling boil. A hard boil churns fat and impurities into the liquid, making the stock cloudy and greasy, while a gentle simmer keeps it clear.
“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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