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A savory stock made from beef and veal bones, vegetables, and water, simmered for several hours.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 10 ingredients
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Stock

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

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the bones and meat

  1. Place 4 pounds of shin of beef on a cutting board.

  2. Remove all meat from the bone with a sharp knife.

  3. Trim all fat from the meat and set aside for other uses.

  4. Break the bone in half with a chopper.

  5. Extract the marrow and set aside for other uses.

Make the stock

  1. In a stock pot or large stewpan, combine the meat and bone. Add 5 quarts of cold water. Stir in ½ teaspoon of coarse sea salt to help scum rise.

  2. Cover the pot and bring to a boil quickly.

  3. Scrape and cut 4 young carrots into pieces. Peel and quarter the turnip and onion. Wash the leek and half a head of celery in cold water.

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

  5. Add all the vegetables to the pot and let simmer gently for 5 hours. Occasionally skim the surface and add a little cold water to help scum rise.

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.

  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. Carrot + turniptop 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
Breaks down into gelatin and rich body as it simmers for hours.
Knuckle of veal
Adds gelatin from its joints and bones, giving the stock body and a silky mouthfeel.
Beef
Contributes meaty flavor and additional gelatin to the finished stock.
Carrots
Add natural sweetness and aromatic depth to the stock.
Onion
Adds savory sweetness and aroma as it cooks slowly in the liquid.

The step that matters

Skim the scum and keep the simmer gentle. Scum is coagulated protein and impurities that cloud the stock if they are stirred back in. A rolling boil emulsifies fat and proteins into the liquid, so a gentle simmer keeps the stock clear.

Swap the onion

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

  1. Parsnipfits better
  2. Chivefits about as well
  3. Lettucefits about as well
  4. Onionthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against beef, veal, carrot, turnip, 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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