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Stock. and Clear Brown Soup

A clear brown soup made by simmering beef shin, turnip, carrot, onion, leek, and celery.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 6 ingredients
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Why it works: Turnip and leek match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 1,046 recipes. Both carry coumarin, which smells sweet, hay. The science ↓

Stock. and Clear Brown Soup

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Cut the beef into pieces and place it in a large pot.

  2. Add the turnip, carrot, onion, leek, and celery.

Simmer

  1. Cover with water and bring to a boil.

  2. Reduce heat and simmer for several hours, skimming off any foam that forms.

Strain

  1. Strain the stock through a fine sieve and discard the solids.

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. Turnip + leektop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together1,046 recipes

    Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).

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

    Shared aroma: myristicin (spice, warm).

  3. Turnip + carrottop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together8,002 recipes

    Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).

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

    Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).

  5. Carrot + leektop 3% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together1,310 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

Shin of beef
Releases gelatin and savory flavor into the stock during long simmering.
Onion
Adds aromatic sweetness and depth to the broth as it cooks.
Carrot
Contributes subtle sweetness and body to the simmered stock.
Celery
Adds aromatic, herbal notes that build the broth's background flavor.
Leek
Adds mild onion-like aroma and sweetness to the stock.

The step that matters

Skimming off the foam. Foam contains coagulated proteins and impurities that can cloud the stock and taint its flavor if left to recirculate. Skimming during the simmer keeps the broth clear and clean-tasting.

Swap the onion

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

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

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

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