Skip to main content
Main

Mutton Stock for Soup

A rich stock made from mutton, beef, poultry, and various bones, simmered with vegetables and seasonings.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 16 ingredients
Jump to recipe ↓

Why it works: Carrot and celery match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 10,173 recipes. Both carry myristicin, which smells spice, warm. The science ↓

Mutton Stock for Soup

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the pot

  1. Layer the ham or smoked beef at the bottom of an iron soup kettle.

  2. Add the mutton, beef, poultry necks, feet, and bones.

  3. Pour in 8 to 12 cups of water, using 1½ cups of water per pound of meat.

Simmer and strain

  1. Boil the mixture slowly and skim off any foam.

  2. Add salt, onions, carrots, turnips, celery, parsley, thyme, mace, and peppercorns.

  3. Simmer for 6 hours.

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

    Shared aroma: myristicin (spice, warm).

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

    Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).

  3. Turnip + celerytop 2% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together4,418 recipes

    Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).

  4. Clove + carrottop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together5,873 recipes

    Shared aroma: cuminaldehyde (Spicy, cumin).

  5. Onion + turniptop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together7,585 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

Mutton
Provides rich meaty flavor and gelatin as it simmers long in the water.
Beef
Adds deeper meat flavor and body to the stock.
Poultry necks and feet
Release gelatin from connective tissue, giving the stock body.
Bones of undressed fowls
Contribute marrow and collagen that enrich flavor and body.
Onions
Add sweetness and savory aroma as they cook down into the broth.

The step that matters

Skim off the foam while the mixture comes to a boil. Foam carries coagulated proteins and impurities that can cloud the stock and make it taste muddy. Skimming early keeps the broth clear and clean-flavored.

Swap the clove

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

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

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

You might also like

Beef, Mutton, or Veal BrothBeef, Mutton, or Veal Broth6 recipesMutton BrothMutton Broth292 recipesRoast BeefRoast Beef211 recipesBeef LoafBeef Loaf175 recipes