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Soup

Clear Stock

A clear meat stock made by simmering beef and veal bones, meat, and vegetables, then straining and degreasing.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 11 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 ↓

Clear Stock

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Remove the meat from the bones.

  2. Discard the fat.

  3. Cut the lean meat and skin into small pieces.

  4. Break the bones as much as possible.

  5. Set aside all the marrow and fat.

Simmer

  1. Place the bones, meat, skin, water, and salt in a clean pan.

  2. Soak for a while.

  3. Slowly bring to a boil.

  4. Simmer gently for 4 hours.

  5. Add the herbs and prepared vegetables.

  6. Simmer for an additional 2 hours.

Strain and clarify

  1. Strain the stock through a cloth.

  2. Set aside the stock.

  3. Once cold, carefully remove the fat from the top.

  4. Wipe the stock with a cloth dipped in hot water.

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

    Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).

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

    Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).

  4. Onion + leektop 4% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together1,326 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl butyrate (apple, fruity).

  5. Pepper + clovetop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together17,451 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl octanoate (fruity, wine).

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

What each ingredient does

Hough or shin of beef
Bones and connective tissue release gelatin into the liquid, giving the stock body.
Veal
Adds extra gelatin and a delicate flavor, enriching the body of the stock.
Sweet herbs
Infuse the stock with aromatic flavor during the long simmer.
Onions
Fried onions add browned, savory depth of flavor to the stock.

The step that matters

Bring to a boil slowly and simmer gently. A rolling boil agitates the fat and proteins into the liquid, emulsifying them and clouding the stock. Gentle simmering lets impurities rise and settle so the stock stays clear.

Swap the clove

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

  1. Celeryfits better
  2. Parsleyfits better
  3. Thymefits better
  4. Clovethe original

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