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Soup Stock

A beef stock made by simmering bones, meat, vegetables, and seasonings for several hours.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 14 ingredients
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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 ↓

Soup Stock

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Cut the meat from the bones.

  2. Place the bones in the bottom of a kettle and lay the meat on top of the bones.

  3. Add water.

Simmer

  1. Place the kettle on the back part of the stove for 1 hour.

  2. Place over a good fire until scum forms on top, then skim off the scum.

  3. Cover the kettle closely.

  4. Let it simmer (not boil) for 4 hours.

  5. Add vegetables and simmer for 1 hour longer.

Finish and chill

  1. Strain the stock.

  2. Add salt.

  3. Place the stock in a cool place.

  4. When cold, remove all the grease from 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. Parsley + peppertop 2% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together34,122 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 shin
Releases flavor and gelatin into the water as it simmers slowly.
Bones (in the method)
Add body and gelatin, giving the stock a fuller mouthfeel.
Onion
Adds sweetness and aromatic depth to the stock during the long simmer.
Carrot
Contributes gentle sweetness and aroma to the simmered stock.

The step that matters

Simmer, do not boil. A gentle simmer keeps the stock clear and prevents fat and impurities from emulsifying into the liquid. A hard boil makes it cloudy and greasy.

Swap the onion

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

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

Fit is the average pairing score against beef, carrot, turnip, parsley, clove, celery, pepper. 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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