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Stock and Seasoning

A clear broth made by simmering meat and bones with water, salt, and pepper.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 4 ingredients
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Why it works: Meat and pepper are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 19% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 8,777 recipes. Both carry 2,4-decadienal, which smells seaweed. The science ↓

Stock and Seasoning

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Cut meat and bones into small pieces and break bones into short sections.

  2. Combine meat, bones, cold water, salt, and pepper in a large kettle.

  3. Let the mixture sit until the water is slightly colored by the meat juices.

Simmer and skim

  1. Bring to a slow boil, skimming off any scum that rises.

  2. Add 1 cup of cold water to help the scum rise more easily.

  3. Let it boil steadily but slowly for 1 hour per pound of meat.

Strain and cool

  1. After cooking, strain the stock into a jar and let it cool.

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. Meat + peppertop 19% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together8,777 recipes

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

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

What each ingredient does

Meat and bones
Release flavor, gelatin and body into the water as they simmer slowly.
Cold water
Extracts flavor gently from the meat and bones, and a cold start helps scum rise to the surface.

The step that matters

Bring to a slow boil and skim the scum. A rolling boil emulsifies fat and impurities into the liquid, making the stock cloudy and greasy. Keeping the heat low and skimming what rises keeps the stock clear and clean-tasting.

“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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