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Common Stock

A beef stock made by simmering beef, vegetables, and seasonings for several hours.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 11 ingredients
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Why it works: Leek and turnip 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 ↓

Common Stock

Ingredients

Directions

Make the stock

  1. In a large pot, combine 20 pounds of beef with 20 quarts of cold water.

  2. Add any scraps of fresh beef, veal, or chicken and season lightly with coarse sea salt.

  3. Gradually bring the mixture to a boil, skimming off any scum that rises to the surface.

  4. Once boiling, add 1 pint of cold water and continue to remove scum.

  5. Let the stock simmer gently for 3 to 4 hours, ensuring it remains clear and flavorful.

Add vegetables and finish

  1. Add the vegetables: 4 carrots, 4 leeks, 2 turnips, 1 parsnip, 1 head of celery, and 2 onions (1 with cloves).

  2. After simmering, remove the meat and vegetables from the pot.

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. Leek + turniptop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together1,046 recipes

    Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).

  2. Turnip + parsniptop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together590 recipes

    Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).

  3. Leek + parsniptop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together165 recipes

    Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).

  4. Carrot + parsniptop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together1,097 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-isobutyl-3-methoxypyrazine (green bell pepper, earthy).

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

    Shared aroma: myristicin (spice, warm).

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

What each ingredient does

Beef
Releases gelatin and savory flavor into the water, giving the stock body and depth.
Onions
Add sweetness and aromatic depth as they soften during the long simmer.
Carrots
Contribute sweetness and a rounded background flavor to the stock.
Leeks
Add a mild, sweet onion-like aroma to the broth.

The step that matters

Skimming the scum. Scum is coagulated protein and impurities; removing it as the liquid heats keeps the stock clear and free of off flavors that would otherwise be dispersed into the broth.

Swap the clove

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

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

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