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Instantaneous Stock

A quick stock made by boiling onion, parsley, salt, cayenne, and gelatin, then straining and adding meat extract.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 7 ingredients
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Why it works: Parsley and pepper match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 2% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 34,122 recipes. Both carry 4'-methylacetophenone, which smells bitter almond. The science ↓

Instantaneous Stock

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Peel and split the onion in half, then stick the cloves into it.

Make the stock

  1. Place the onion, parsley, salt, cayenne pepper, and gelatine in a saucepan of water.

  2. Boil until the gelatine is dissolved.

  3. Strain the mixture into a basin, pressing the onion and parsley to extract as much flavor as possible.

  4. Add the extract of meat to the strained liquid and stir until dissolved.

  5. Taste and adjust seasoning as needed.

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 + peppertop 2% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together34,122 recipes

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

  2. Clove + peppertop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together17,451 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl octanoate (fruity, wine).

  3. Clove + parsleytop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together6,768 recipes

    Shared aroma: cuminaldehyde (Spicy, cumin).

  4. Onion + parsleytop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together25,843 recipes

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

  5. Onion + peppertop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together68,474 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

Gelatine
Dissolves into the liquid and sets it into a jelly-like stock when cooled.
Extract of meat
Adds concentrated meaty savour so the stock tastes rich despite its short cooking.
Onion
Releases aromatic sweetness and savoury depth into the water as it simmers.
Parsley
Contributes a fresh, herbal aroma to the stock.

The step that matters

Dissolving the gelatine fully. Gelatine must be completely dissolved in hot liquid before straining; undissolved granules stay grainy and do not set evenly when the stock cools.

Swap the onion

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (clove, parsley, pepper, meat):

  1. Carrotfits better
  2. Shallotfits better
  3. Capsicumfits better
  4. Onionthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against clove, parsley, pepper, meat. 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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