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Mutton-stock for Soups

A savory stock made from beef, mutton, ham or bacon, poultry necks, calf head bones, and vegetables.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 12 ingredients
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Why it works: Thyme and parsley match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 9,057 recipes. Both carry cuminaldehyde, which smells Spicy, cumin. The science ↓

Mutton-stock for Soups

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Combine equal parts of beef and mutton with a small portion of ham or lean bacon.

  2. Add the necks of fowls, bones of an undressed calf's head, or any uncooked joint for extra flavor.

  3. Pour 1 to 1½ pints of cold water for each pound of meat.

Make the stock

  1. Skim the liquid as it begins to boil, then add 1½ oz of salt per gallon, celery, onions, turnips, carrots, herbs, peppercorns, cloves, and mace.

  2. Reduce heat and simmer gently for about six hours.

Strain and cool

  1. Strain the stock and let it cool, ensuring to remove all fat before serving.

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. Thyme + parsleytop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together9,057 recipes

    Shared aroma: cuminaldehyde (Spicy, cumin).

  2. Carrot + parsleytop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together8,053 recipes

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

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

    Shared aroma: myristicin (spice, warm).

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

    Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).

  5. Celery + parsleytop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together6,810 recipes

    Shared aroma: 4'-methylacetophenone (bitter almond).

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

What each ingredient does

Beef
Provides rich meaty flavor and gelatin from its bones and connective tissue as it simmers.
Mutton
Adds deep, savory meat flavor and body to the stock during long simmering.
Onions
Contribute sweetness and savory depth as they soften and release their flavor into the liquid.
Carrots
Add gentle sweetness and aroma to the stock.

The step that matters

Skim as the liquid begins to boil. Skimming removes foam and coagulated impurities that would otherwise cloud the stock and taint its flavor. Starting with cold water and heating gradually lets these rise to the surface where they can be removed.

Swap the onion

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

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

Fit is the average pairing score against beef, mutton, turnip, carrot, celery, thyme, parsley. 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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