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A savory broth made by simmering beef or veal, poultry bones, bacon or ham, onions, turnip, carrots, celery, herbs, and water.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 13 ingredients
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Stock

Why it works: Turnip and carrot 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 ↓

Stock

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Cut the meat and bacon or ham into 3-inch pieces.

  2. Break the bones into small pieces.

  3. Rub the butter on the bottom of a large stewpan.

Make the stock

  1. Add ½ pint of water and the broken bones to the stewpan.

  2. Add the meat and all other ingredients.

  3. Cover the stewpan and place it on a stove, stirring occasionally.

  4. When the bottom of the pan is covered with a pale, jelly-like substance, add the 4 quarts of cold 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.

Photo for illustrative purposes only · Contact us to use it

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

    Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).

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

    Shared aroma: cuminaldehyde (Spicy, cumin).

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

    Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).

  4. Clove + turniptop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together2,233 recipes

    Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).

  5. Onion + carrottop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together21,601 recipes

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

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

What each ingredient does

Shin of beef
Gives meaty flavour and gelatin that builds body as it simmers slowly.
Bones
Release gelatin that gives the finished stock body and a silky mouthfeel.
Bacon or ham
Adds savoury, salty depth to the broth.
Onions
Add sweet, savoury flavour, with the cloves adding aroma.
Carrots
Add gentle sweetness that rounds out the broth.

The step that matters

Adding the cold water at the jelly-like stage. Cold water draws flavour and gelatin out of meat and bones gradually. Adding it only when the pale, jelly-like layer has formed, as the record directs, helps the stock stay clearer and better flavoured.

Swap the clove

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

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

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