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A savory liquid made by simmering beef or veal, poultry bones, vegetables, and seasonings in 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 the meat, bacon, bones, onions, turnip, carrots, celery, salt, pepper, mace, and herbs to the stewpan, then pour in the cold water.

  2. Bring the mixture to a boil.

  3. Reduce the heat and simmer for several hours.

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 or knuckle of veal
Collagen in the connective tissue breaks down into gelatin, giving the stock body.
Bones
Release gelatin and minerals into the water, adding body and depth of flavour.
Lean bacon or ham
Adds savoury, smoky flavour to the stock.
Onions
Provide sweetness and aromatic depth as they cook down.
Carrots
Add gentle sweetness and aroma to the broth.

The step that matters

Bring to a boil, then reduce to a simmer. Boiling vigorously makes the stock cloudy and can emulsify fat into it. A gentle simmer keeps the liquid clear while collagen slowly converts to gelatin.

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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