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Stock, or Pot Au Feu

A clear beef stock made by simmering bones, meat, vegetables, and herbs for several hours.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 9 ingredients
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Why it works: Parsley and carrot match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 8,053 recipes. Both carry 2,4-decadienal, which smells seaweed. The science ↓

Stock, or Pot Au Feu

Ingredients

Directions

  1. Combine 2 ½ pints of cold water with 1 pound each of bones and meat in a pot.

  2. Add an onion, parsley, carrots, and a small amount of turnips and celery.

  3. Do not let the mixture boil for the first 30 minutes; then simmer for 4 to 5 hours.

  4. Skim the surface frequently to remove scum.

  5. Season with salt sparingly, adding more at the end if needed.

  6. Strain the stock before serving.

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. Parsley + carrottop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together8,053 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2,4-decadienal (seaweed).

  2. Carrot + celerytop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together10,173 recipes

    Shared aroma: myristicin (spice, warm).

  3. Carrot + turniptop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together8,002 recipes

    Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).

  4. Parsley + celerytop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together6,810 recipes

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

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

    Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).

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

What each ingredient does

Bones
Release gelatin and savoury flavour into the cold water as they slowly simmer.
Meat
Contributes savoury flavour and richness to the broth during the long simmer.
Onion
Adds sweet, savoury aroma that gives the stock depth.
Carrots
Add gentle sweetness and aroma to the broth.

The step that matters

Keep the mixture from boiling for the first 30 minutes. Starting in cold water and heating gently lets proteins and fats release slowly, so the stock stays clear; boiling early makes it cloudy and greasy.

Swap the onion

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

  1. Parsnipfits better
  2. Leekfits better
  3. Lettucefits better
  4. Onionthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against meat, parsley, 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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