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Clear Soup Stock

A clear beef stock made by simmering beef, bones, and aromatics for hours.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 17 ingredients
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Why it works: Beans and tomato match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 2,713 recipes. Both carry 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine, which smells earthy, pea. The science ↓

Clear Soup Stock

Ingredients

Directions

Make the stock

  1. Wash the meat.

  2. Place the meat in cold water without salt.

  3. Bring to a boil slowly, skimming frequently for the first hour.

  4. Add salt.

  5. Simmer the stock for four hours on low heat.

  6. Add a pinch of black pepper.

  7. Strain the stock into a jar.

  8. Let it cool overnight and remove any grease.

Brown and simmer

  1. In a separate pot, brown half of the meat in marrow or drippings.

  2. Add the remaining meat, bone, and fat to the soup kettle.

  3. Let the mixture stand for 15-20 minutes until the water is red.

  4. Bring to a boil.

  5. Add the browned meat.

  6. Cover and simmer slowly for six hours.

  7. Add vegetables one hour before finishing.

  8. Do not add salt until ready to remove from heat.

  9. Strain through a fine sieve.

  10. When cold, remove grease and season with salt and pepper.

Make the bean soup and serve

  1. In another pot, place soaked beans with the beef bone, tomatoes, onion, cloves, and fill with cold water.

  2. Simmer all day.

  3. Mash the beans through a colander and strain the mixture.

  4. Season with Tobasco, Worcestershire sauce, salt, pepper, and sherry.

  5. Serve with a slice of lemon and a sprinkle of finely-chopped hard-boiled egg.

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. Beans + tomatotop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together2,713 recipes

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

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

    Shared aroma: cuminaldehyde (Spicy, cumin).

  3. Pepper + thymetop 4% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together11,585 recipes

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

  4. Thyme + tomatotop 4% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,370 recipes

    Shared aroma: 1-octen-3-one (mushroom, metallic).

  5. Pepper + clovetop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together17,451 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl octanoate (fruity, wine).

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

What each ingredient does

Lean beef
Provides the meat flavour and gelatin-rich body of the stock as it simmers.
Beef bone
Releases collagen and minerals during long simmering, adding body and depth to the broth.
Beans
Break down when mashed and strained, thickening the bean soup and giving it body.
Tomatoes
Add acidity and savoury depth to the bean soup.
Onion
Adds aromatic sweetness and savoury flavour as it simmers into the soup.

The step that matters

Skimming during the first hour of boiling. Impurities and proteins rise to the surface as the stock heats. Skimming them early keeps the broth clear and free of a greasy or cloudy look.

Swap the clove

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (beef, pepper, thyme, beans, tomato, onion, sauce):

  1. Cuminfits better
  2. Garlicfits better
  3. Oreganofits better
  4. Clovethe original

Fit is the average pairing score against beef, pepper, thyme, beans, tomato, onion, sauce. 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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