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Stock for Gravies and Soups

A clear beef stock made by simmering beef, trimmings, vegetables, and water for several hours.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 7 ingredients
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Why it works: Carrot and celery match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 10,173 recipes. Both carry myristicin, which smells spice, warm. The science ↓

Stock for Gravies and Soups

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Crack the bone of the beef in two or three places.

  2. Place the beef and trimmings in a stew-pan and cover with cold water.

Make the stock

  1. Bring to a simmer and skim off the scum until the broth is clear.

  2. Add ½ cup of cold water to help remove remaining scum and skim again.

  3. Add the chopped carrot, turnips, celery, and onion.

  4. Stir occasionally to prevent burning or sticking.

  5. Simmer the broth very slowly for 4 to 5 hours.

  6. Strain the broth through a sieve into a stone pan or jar.

Store

  1. Once cooled, cover and store in a cool place.

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

    Shared aroma: myristicin (spice, warm).

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

    Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).

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

    Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).

  4. Turnip + oniontop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together7,585 recipes

    Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).

  5. Carrot + oniontop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together21,601 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).

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

What each ingredient does

Beef leg or shin
Releases gelatin and savory flavor into the broth during long, slow simmering.
Onion
Adds aromatic sweetness and depth to the broth's flavor.
Carrot
Contributes natural sweetness and subtle earthy flavor to the broth.
Celery
Adds aromatic, savory background flavor to the broth.
Turnips
Contribute mild sweetness and earthy flavor to the broth.

The step that matters

Skimming the scum. Skimming removes coagulated proteins and impurities that would otherwise cloud the broth and taint its flavor. Doing it early, before the vegetables go in, keeps the stock clear.

Swap the onion

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

  1. Leekfits better
  2. Parsnipfits better
  3. Lettucefits about as well
  4. Onionthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against beef, meat, carrot, turnip, 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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