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Consomme, or Brown Stock

A clear beef stock made by simmering beef, vegetables, and seasonings for six hours.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 8 ingredients
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Why it works: Carrot and celery match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 10,173 recipes. Both carry myristicin, which smells spice, warm. The science ↓

Consomme, or Brown Stock

Ingredients

Directions

Make the stock

  1. Combine all ingredients in a stockpot or large saucepan.

  2. Bring to a brisk boil, then reduce heat and simmer gently for 6 hours.

  3. Skim off any scum that rises to the surface.

  4. After 6 hours, strain the stock through a colander into a large basin to remove meat and vegetables.

  5. Run the stock through a tammy cloth to clear any remaining particles.

Cool and defat

  1. Allow the stock to cool in basins.

  2. Once cold, remove the fat from the top with a wooden spoon.

  3. Wipe the surface of the stock with a clean cloth dipped in warm water to remove any remaining fat.

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

    Shared aroma: myristicin (spice, warm).

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

    Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).

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

    Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).

  4. Onion + turniptop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together7,585 recipes

    Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).

  5. Carrot + oniontop 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

Lean beef or shin of beef
Provides meat flavour and gelatin-rich bones and marrow for body in the stock.
Carrots
Add gentle sweetness and aromatic depth to the simmered stock.
Onions
Contribute savoury sweetness and aroma as they cook slowly in the liquid.
Turnips
Add mild sweetness and a subtle vegetable background flavour.
Celery
Adds aromatic, herbal savour that rounds out the stock's flavour.

The step that matters

Keep the simmer gentle. A hard boil emulsifies fat and cloudies the stock, while a gentle simmer keeps it clear and lets collagen from the bones dissolve slowly for body.

Swap the onion

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

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

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