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Brown Soup Stock

A beef stock made by simmering beef shank, vegetables, and spices in water.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 10 ingredients
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Brown Soup Stock

Why it works: Carrot and parsley match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 8,053 recipes. Both carry 2,4-decadienal, which smells seaweed. The science ↓

Brown Soup Stock

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Place half the beef shank and the bones in a large pot with cold water.

  2. Brown the remaining beef and all the vegetables in a skillet.

  3. Add the browned meat and vegetables to the pot.

Simmer

  1. Stir in the peppercorns, cloves, and salt.

  2. Simmer for several hours, skimming off any foam that rises to the surface.

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

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

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

    Shared aroma: myristicin (spice, warm).

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

    Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).

  4. Parsley + celerytop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together6,810 recipes

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

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

Beef shank
Provides meat flavor and collagen that turns into body and richness during long simmering.
Onion
Adds aromatic sweetness and depth as it softens and browns in the pot.
Carrot
Contributes subtle sweetness and aromatic flavor to the stock.

The step that matters

Skimming off the foam. Foam is coagulated proteins and impurities that rise during simmering. Removing them keeps the stock clear and free of bitter or cloudy flavors.

Swap the celery

The recipe marks celery as optional. How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (beef, clove, onion, carrot, turnip, parsley):

  1. Thymefits about as well
  2. Marjoramfits about as well
  3. Celerythe original
  4. Cuminfits less well

Fit is the average pairing score against beef, clove, onion, carrot, turnip, 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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