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Game Stock

A stock made by simmering game meat, bones, ham, and vegetables.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 7 ingredients
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Why it works: Carrot and turnip match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 8,002 recipes. Both carry coumarin, which smells sweet, hay. The science ↓

Game Stock

Ingredients

Directions

  1. Stew the remains of cold roast game and bones with lean ham at the bottom of a pot.

  2. Cover with water and boil quickly until reduced to a glaze.

  3. Add more water, using 1 pint for every pound of trimmings.

  4. Flavor with chopped carrots, turnips, and onions.

  5. Remove scum as it rises and simmer gently for 3 to 4 hours.

  6. Strain the stock for use.

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. Carrot + turniptop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together8,002 recipes

    Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).

  2. Turnip + oniontop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together7,585 recipes

    Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).

  3. Carrot + oniontop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together21,601 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).

  4. Ham + oniontop 18% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together4,159 recipes

    Shared aroma: gamma-nonanolactone (coconut, sweet).

  5. Ham + carrottop 21% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together1,918 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2,4-decadienal (seaweed).

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

What each ingredient does

Bones and trimmings of game
Provide the main body and gelatin that give the stock its depth and richness.
Remains of cold roast game
Add concentrated roasted meat flavor that carries through the stock.
Lean ham
Adds savory, salty depth that rounds out the game flavor.
Onions
Contribute sweetness and aromatic flavor as they cook slowly.
Carrots
Add gentle sweetness and aroma to balance the stock.

The step that matters

Remove scum as it rises. Scum is coagulated protein and impurities. Skimming it as it forms keeps the stock clear and prevents bitter or muddy flavors from mixing back in during the long simmer.

Swap the onion

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

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

Fit is the average pairing score against ham, carrot, turnip. 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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