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Soup

General Rules for Soup Stock

Instructions for making soup stock from meat and bones with seasonings.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
By Norton, Caroline Trask · From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 15 ingredients
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Why it works: Sage and thyme match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 1,485 recipes. Both carry beta-phellandrene, which smells minty, terpene. The science ↓

General Rules for Soup Stock

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Soak meat and bones in cold water for one hour before cooking.

  2. Cut the meat into small pieces and wash clean.

  3. Add one quart of cold water for every pound of meat and bones.

Season and simmer

  1. Add seasoning: one even teaspoonful of salt, three peppercorns or a little ground pepper, two cloves, a celery root or the outside stalk, a sprig of parsley, a tablespoonful each of onion, carrot and turnip, a part of a bay leaf, a pinch of sage, summer savory, thyme and marjoram.

  2. If desired, reserve part of lean meat and vegetables, brown them in fat taken from the meat.

  3. Add a tablespoonful of browned sugar or caramel to give a brown color.

  4. Bring to a gentle simmer on the back of the stove; do not boil hard.

  5. Do not remove the scum from the soup while it is cooking.

  6. Simmer the stock for six to eight hours.

Strain and finish

  1. When the soup is done, strain immediately and set aside until cold; the fat will form a cake on top.

  2. Remove the fat and reheat.

  3. Boil rice until tender, then add to the soup if desired.

Nutrition, whole recipe (rough)

277Calories
5 gProtein
1 gFat
62 gCarbs

Counts 9 of 12 ingredients. The other 3 aren't in our nutrition table and add nothing above, so the real totals are higher.

What these numbers assume: 9 portions
IngredientPortion assumedkcal
Rice1 cup cooked (158g) white206
Sugar1 tbsp (12.5g) granulated49
Clove1 tsp ground (2g)7
Black Pepper1 tsp ground (2.3g)6
Thyme1 tsp dried (1.4g)4
Sage1 tsp ground (0.7g)2
Bay Leaf1 leaf (0.6g)2
Parsley1 tbsp chopped fresh (3.8g)1
Salt1 tsp (6g)0
Waternot in our table0
Meatnot in our table0
Soupnot in our table0

One typical portion per ingredient; the recipe's quantities are not counted. A rough guide only, not for medical or dietary planning.

By Norton, Caroline Trask. 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. See the original page.

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. Sage + thymetop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together1,485 recipes

    Shared aroma: beta-phellandrene (minty, terpene).

  2. Parsley + thymetop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together9,057 recipes

    Shared aroma: cuminaldehyde (Spicy, cumin).

  3. Parsley + sagetop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together1,445 recipes

    Shared aroma: beta-phellandrene (minty, terpene).

  4. Parsley + peppertop 2% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together34,122 recipes

    Shared aroma: 4'-methylacetophenone (bitter almond).

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

Meat and bones
Release flavor and gelatin into the water as they simmer, giving the stock body.
Water
Acts as the solvent that slowly extracts flavor and gelatin from the meat and bones.
Browned sugar
Adds caramel flavor and a brown color to the stock.
Celery root (in the method)
Adds aromatic flavor to the stock as it simmers.

The step that matters

Bring to a gentle simmer; do not boil hard. Hard boiling agitates the liquid and emulsifies fat into it, leaving a cloudy, greasy stock. A slow simmer keeps the stock clear and lets flavor and gelatin extract gradually.

Swap the clove

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (meat, parsley, sage, sugar, rice, pepper, thyme):

  1. Marjoramfits better
  2. Winter savoryfits better
  3. Rosemaryfits better
  4. Clovethe original

Fit is the average pairing score against meat, parsley, sage, sugar, rice, pepper, 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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