Why it works: Beef and pepper are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 10% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 18,971 recipes. Both carry 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine, which smells earthy, pea. The science ↓
Soup Stock
Ingredients
Directions
Prepare
Wash the meat.
Place the meat in a large pot with cold water.
Slowly bring to a boil.
Skim and simmer
Skim off the scum.
Add a little salt and a dash of cold water to help the scum rise.
Skim again.
Let it boil gently for 6 to 8 hours until the meat is tender.
Add black pepper.
Strain and degrease
Strain the stock into a jar.
Let it cool.
Remove all grease from the cooled stock.
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.
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Beef + peppertop 10% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together18,971 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
- Lean beef
- Provides the meat flavor and gelatin that gives the stock body as it simmers.
- Cold water
- Extracts flavor and collagen from the meat slowly, producing a clearer stock.
- Coarse sea salt
- Seasons the stock and helps coagulated scum rise to the surface for skimming.
The step that matters
Skim the scum. Scum is coagulated protein and impurities released as the liquid heats. Skimming it early and again after adding salt and cold water keeps the stock clear and clean-tasting.
“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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