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Stock, No* 1

A beef stock made with shin, ham, onions, carrots, celery, cloves, allspice, peppercorns, brown sugar, mustard, salt, black onion, and water, simmered for six hours.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 14 ingredients
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Why it works: Clove and allspice match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 7,874 recipes. Both carry estragole, which smells anise, licorice. The science ↓

Stock, No* 1

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Heat an iron pot and rub the bottom with garlic six times.

  2. Add the beef and water; let it stand by the fire for 1 hour.

Simmer

  1. Add the ham, onions, carrots, celery, cloves, allspice, peppercorns, brown sugar, mustard, salt, black onion, and water.

  2. Simmer and skim frequently for 6 hours.

Strain and chill

  1. Strain through a fine sieve dipped in cold water into an uncovered earthen pan.

  2. When cold, remove the 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. Clove + allspicetop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together7,874 recipes

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

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

    Shared aroma: myristicin (spice, warm).

  3. Carrot + clovetop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together5,873 recipes

    Shared aroma: cuminaldehyde (Spicy, cumin).

  4. Carrot + allspicetop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together1,021 recipes

    Shared aroma: beta-phellandrene (minty, terpene).

  5. Celery + allspicetop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together1,422 recipes

    Shared aroma: beta-phellandrene (minty, terpene).

Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs

What each ingredient does

Shin of beef
Its connective tissue breaks down into gelatin, giving the stock body and a silky mouthfeel.
Lean ham
Adds salty, savoury depth that rounds out the beef flavour.
Onions
Release sugars and savoury aromas that build the stock's base flavour as they cook.
Carrots
Add gentle sweetness and colour to the stock.
Celery
Contributes a fresh, aromatic savoury note.
Allspice
Adds warm, aromatic spice notes to the stock.

The step that matters

Simmer and skim frequently. Keeping the stock at a gentle simmer and skimming off foam and fat prevents the liquid from clouding and keeps the flavour clean. Boiling vigorously emulsifies fat and impurities into the stock, making it cloudy and greasy.

Swap the onion

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

  1. Parsnipfits better
  2. Turnipfits better
  3. Mustardfits better
  4. Onionthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against beef, ham, carrot, celery, clove, allspice, 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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