Name: Beef Stock
Ingredients: 1 shin of beef, cut into pieces; bones from the beef; 6 quarts of water; 1 quart of onions, chopped; 3 carrots, chopped; 1 bunch of parsley; 1 head of celery, chopped; 4 bay leaves; 6 cloves

Why it works: Carrot and parsley 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 ↓

Beef Stock

Ingredients

Directions

Make the stock

In a large pot, fry the onions and carrots until browned.
Add the fried onions and carrots to the pot with the beef, bones, water, parsley, celery, bay leaves, and cloves.
Bring to a gentle boil and simmer for at least 6 hours.

Strain and chill

Strain the stock and refrigerate overnight to remove the fat.

Serve

When ready to use, heat the stock and add vermicelli, barley, or rice as desired.

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.

Carrot + parsleytop 1% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together8,053 recipes

Shared aroma: 2,4-decadienal (seaweed).
Carrot + celerytop 1% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together10,173 recipes

Shared aroma: myristicin (spice, warm).
Parsley + celerytop 1% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together6,810 recipes

Shared aroma: 4'-methylacetophenone (bitter almond).
Carrot + clovetop 5% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together5,873 recipes

Shared aroma: cuminaldehyde (Spicy, cumin).
Onion + carrottop 6% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together21,601 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

Beef shin and bones: Release gelatin and savoury flavour into the water during long simmering.
Onions and carrots: Browning them first adds sweetness and deeper colour to the finished stock.
Celery and parsley: Add aromatic, herbal flavour that rounds out the stock.
Bay leaves and cloves: Contribute warm, aromatic notes to the stock.

The step that matters

Chilling overnight before use. Fat solidifies on cooled stock and can be lifted off cleanly, leaving a clearer, less greasy broth.

Swap the clove

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

Thymefits better
Marjoramfits better
Cuminfits better
Clovethe original

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