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Plain Soup Stock

A large quantity of beef stock made by simmering beef bones, meat, and vegetables for several hours.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 10 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 ↓

Plain Soup Stock

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the bones and meat

  1. Cut off all the meat and crack the bones to expose the marrow.

  2. Place the bones in a large pot and pile the meat on top.

  3. Add cold water to the pot.

Simmer the stock

  1. Bring the water to a boil, skimming off any scum that rises.

  2. Simmer for seven hours.

  3. Add the vegetables, cloves, and thyme.

  4. Simmer for one hour.

  5. Add the bay leaves half an hour before the cooking time is up.

  6. After cooking, remove the pot from heat.

  7. Strain the stock through a wet bag.

Finish and clarify the grease

  1. When the stock cools and 'jells', remove the grease from the top.

  2. To purify the cold grease, melt it and wash in boiling water with 1% bicarbonate soda.

  3. Dip off the clear grease and incorporate 1/4 oz. of salt per pound.

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. Clove + thymetop 2% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together4,108 recipes

    Shared aroma: cuminaldehyde (Spicy, cumin).

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

    Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).

  5. Carrot + thymetop 3% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together4,563 recipes

    Shared aroma: cuminaldehyde (Spicy, cumin).

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

What each ingredient does

Beef
Provides the meat and marrow-rich bones that give the stock its body and flavour.
Onions
Add sweetness and aromatic depth to the stock as they simmer.
Carrots
Contribute natural sweetness and aroma to the stock.
Celery
Adds savoury, aromatic flavour to the stock.

The step that matters

Skimming the scum after boiling. Scum is coagulated protein and impurities that rise as the water heats. Removing it early keeps the stock clear and clean-tasting instead of cloudy or bitter.

Swap the clove

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

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

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