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Soup Stock

A clear beef stock made by simmering a shin of beef with water, onion, carrot, turnip, celery, bay leaves, parsley, cloves, and salt.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 10 ingredients
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Soup Stock

Why it works: Carrot and parsley match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 8,053 recipes. Both carry 2,4-decadienal, which smells seaweed. The science ↓

Soup Stock

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Wipe the beef with a damp towel and cut the meat from the bones.

  2. Place the bones in a large kettle and lay the meat on top.

Simmer

  1. Add the cold water and place the kettle on the back of the stove for 1 hour.

  2. After 30 minutes, skim off the scum that gathers on the surface.

  3. Reduce the heat and add 1 cup of cold water, then cover and let it simmer for 4 hours.

  4. Add the vegetables and simmer for 1 hour longer.

Strain and chill

  1. Strain the stock through a fine sieve, add the salt, and cool it in a cold place.

  2. Once cold, remove the grease from the surface.

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.

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.

  1. Carrot + parsleytop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together8,053 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2,4-decadienal (seaweed).

  2. Carrot + celerytop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together10,173 recipes

    Shared aroma: myristicin (spice, warm).

  3. Carrot + turniptop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together8,002 recipes

    Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).

  4. Parsley + celerytop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together6,810 recipes

    Shared aroma: 4'-methylacetophenone (bitter almond).

  5. Turnip + celerytop 2% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together4,418 recipes

    Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).

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

What each ingredient does

Beef shin
Bones and meat release gelatin and flavor into the long simmer, giving body to the stock.
Onion
Adds sweetness and aromatic depth to the stock as it simmers.
Carrot
Contributes natural sweetness and a rounded background flavor to the stock.
Celery
Adds a fresh, aromatic savory note that balances the rich beef.

The step that matters

Skimming the scum. Scum is coagulated protein and impurities that rise as the stock first heats. Skimming it early keeps the stock clear and clean-tasting instead of cloudy or muddy.

Swap the clove

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (beef, onion, carrot, turnip, parsley, celery):

  1. Thymefits better
  2. Marjoramfits better
  3. Tarragonfits better
  4. Clovethe original

Fit is the average pairing score against beef, onion, carrot, turnip, parsley, celery. 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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