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Rich Strong Stock.

A hearty beef and veal stock simmered slowly with ham, poultry trimmings, vegetables, herbs, and spices.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 18 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 ↓

Rich Strong Stock.

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Line a clean stewpan with thin slices of ham, trimming off any rusty fat.

  2. Cut the beef and veal into 3-inch square pieces and lay them on the ham.

Brown and cover

  1. Set the stewpan on the stove and cook, stirring frequently, until the meat is evenly browned.

  2. Add the beef and veal bones and poultry trimmings, then pour in the cold water.

  3. Skim the surface and occasionally add cold water to keep it from boiling until clear.

Simmer and strain

  1. Add all remaining ingredients and simmer very slowly for 5 hours. Do not let it come to a brisk boil to preserve the stock's color.

  2. Strain through a fine sieve or cloth before 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. Onion + turniptop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together7,585 recipes

    Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).

  5. Onion + carrottop 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 shin
Gives body and rich meaty flavor to the stock as it simmers slowly.
Veal knuckle
Releases gelatin during long simmering, giving the stock body and a silky mouthfeel.
Ham
Adds savory, salty depth and aroma to the stock base.
Onions
Add sweetness and aromatic depth as they cook down into the stock.
Carrots
Contribute gentle sweetness and aromatic background to the stock.

The step that matters

Keep the stock at a bare simmer. A brisk boil makes fat and impurities emulsify into the liquid, leaving it cloudy and darker. Slow simmering keeps it clear and lets gelatin extract gently from the bones.

Swap the turnip

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (beef, veal, ham, butter, onion, carrot, celery):

  1. Leekfits about as well
  2. Potatofits about as well
  3. Turnipthe original
  4. Tomatofits about as well

Fit is the average pairing score against beef, veal, ham, butter, onion, carrot, 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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