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White Soup Stock II

A clear soup stock made with meat, bones, celery, onion, salt, and peppercorns simmered for hours.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 6 ingredients
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Why it works: Celery and onion are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 7% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 18,518 recipes. Both carry guaiacol, which smells smoky, sweet. The science ↓

White Soup Stock II

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Wipe the meat, remove it from the bone, and cut it into small pieces.

Make the stock

  1. Put the meat, bones, cold water, celery, onion, salt, and peppercorns in a kettle.

  2. Heat gradually to boiling point, skimming frequently.

  3. Simmer for four to five hours.

  4. Ensure scum is removed.

Strain

  1. Then strain.

  2. Strain through double thickness of cheesecloth for a clear stock.

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. Celery + oniontop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together18,518 recipes

    Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).

  2. Onion + meattop 17% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together6,364 recipes

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

  3. Celery + meattop 18% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together1,880 recipes

    Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).

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

What each ingredient does

Meat from bones
Releases flavor and gelatin into the water as it simmers, giving the stock body.
Cold water
Extracts flavor slowly from the meat and bones when it starts cold and heats gradually.
Celery
Adds a savory, aromatic background flavor to the stock.
Onion
Adds aromatic sweetness and depth to the stock as it simmers.

The step that matters

Heat gradually and skim frequently. Heating slowly from cold lets proteins and impurities rise gradually as scum, which can be skimmed off. Boiling vigorously emulsifies fats and particles into the liquid, clouding the stock and making it harder to clarify.

Swap the celery

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (onion, meat):

  1. Garlicfits better
  2. Thymefits better
  3. Cuminfits about as well
  4. Celerythe original

Fit is the average pairing score against onion, meat. 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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