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Soup Stock

A clear beef stock made by simmering shin, bones, vegetables, and seasonings for several hours.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 10 ingredients
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Soup Stock

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 ↓

Soup Stock

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Wipe the meat well with a damp towel.

  2. Cut all the meat from the bones.

  3. Place the bones in a large kettle, then lay the meat on top.

  4. Add the cold water.

Simmer

  1. Stand the kettle on the back part of the stove for 1 hour.

  2. Place the kettle over medium heat.

  3. After 30 minutes, skim off the scum that gathers on the surface.

  4. Add 1 cup of cold water and cover the kettle.

  5. Let it simmer (not boil) for 4 hours.

  6. Add the vegetables and simmer for 1 hour longer.

Finish and cool

  1. Strain the stock through a fine sieve.

  2. Add the salt.

  3. Cool it in a cold place.

  4. Once cold, remove all the grease from the surface.

  5. It is ready 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.

Photo for illustrative purposes only · Contact us to use it

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. Celery + turniptop 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

Beef shin and bones
Release gelatin, collagen and meaty flavour into the long-simmered liquid, giving body to the stock.
Onion
Adds sweetness and aromatic depth as it softens and releases its flavour into the stock.
Carrot
Contributes gentle sweetness and colour to the finished stock.
Celery
Adds savoury, aromatic background flavour to the stock.
Turnip
Adds mild sweetness and earthy flavour to the stock.

The step that matters

Keep the stock at a bare simmer and skim the scum. Boiling churns fat and impurities into the liquid, making it cloudy and greasy. A gentle simmer, with scum skimmed off early, keeps the stock clear and clean-tasting.

Swap the clove

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

  1. Thymefits better
  2. Marjoramfits better
  3. Tarragonfits better
  4. Clovethe original

Fit is the average pairing score against beef, parsley, onion, carrot, celery, turnip. 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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