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Excellent Stock Soup

A hearty soup made from veal, pig's feet, beef marrow bones, herbs, vegetables, and rice, simmered for hours.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 12 ingredients
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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 ↓

Excellent Stock Soup

Ingredients

Directions

Make the stock

  1. Combine the veal, pig's feet, and marrow-bones in a large pot with 9 quarts of water, and soak overnight.

  2. Leave the pot on the range overnight, adding a little salt.

  3. Cook the mixture for 2 hours over low heat before the fire goes down.

  4. In the morning, add the herbs, onions, carrots, mace, and celery.

  5. Simmer gently for 6 hours.

  6. Remove the pot from heat and strain the broth, discarding the meat and bones.

  7. Rub the vegetables through a colander.

  8. Return the meat and bones to the stock pot, season with salt and pepper, and pour in the strained broth, reserving 2 quarts.

  9. Ensure there are at least 6 quarts of strong broth, adding hot water as needed during cooking.

  10. Cool the stock and skim off any fat.

  11. Store the stock in a cold place.

Make the soup

  1. Reheat the reserved soup, add the rice, and simmer until the rice is tender.

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. Celery + peppertop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together16,012 recipes

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

  3. Carrot + peppertop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together14,555 recipes

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

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

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

  5. Beef + oniontop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together17,092 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

Veal knuckle
Adds body and gelatin, giving the stock a richer, rounder mouthfeel.
Pig's feet
Release gelatin and collagen, thickening the broth and giving it a silky texture.
Beef marrow-bones
Release gelatin and savory flavor into the long-simmered broth.
Onions
Add sweetness and aromatic depth as they cook into the stock.
Carrots
Contribute natural sweetness and body when rubbed through the strained broth.
Rice
Absorbs liquid and swells, thickening the soup as it cooks.

The step that matters

Skimming the fat after cooling. Fat from the bones and meat floats and solidifies as the stock cools, so removing it cold gives a clearer, cleaner-tasting broth than skimming while hot.

Swap the mace

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (veal, beef, onion, carrot, celery, pepper, rice):

  1. Parsleyfits better
  2. Turmericfits better
  3. Marjoramfits better
  4. Macethe original

Fit is the average pairing score against veal, beef, onion, carrot, celery, pepper, rice. 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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