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Plain Stock

A simple beef stock made by simmering beef, vegetables, and optional meats 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 Stock

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the stock

  1. In a large pot, combine 1 pound of fresh beef and 1 quart of soft water.

  2. Add any meat trimmings, an old fowl, rabbit, or knuckle of veal if available.

  3. Bring to a simmer, stirring well and skimming off any scum that rises.

  4. Add 3-4 carrots, 2 turnips, 4 onions, and 1-2 heads of celery.

Simmer and strain

  1. Let the mixture stew slowly for 4 to 6 hours.

  2. Once done, let it settle, skim off the fat, strain, and set aside for use.

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

Fresh beef
Provides the main meat flavour and gelatin-rich body as it stews.
Soft water
Serves as the liquid that extracts flavour and collagen from the meat and bones.
Onions
Add sweetness and savoury depth to the finished stock.
Carrots
Contribute gentle sweetness and aromatic body to the stock.
Celery
Adds aromatic, savoury flavour that rounds out the stock.

The step that matters

Skimming the scum while it comes to a simmer. Impurities and proteins that rise at first can cloud the stock and taint its flavour. Removing them early keeps the liquid clear and clean-tasting.

Swap the onion

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

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

Fit is the average pairing score against beef, meat, rabbit, veal, 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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