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Stock for Clear Soup

A clear stock made from meat, vegetables, and seasonings simmered for up to four hours.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 10 ingredients
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Why it works: Turnip and leek match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 1,046 recipes. Both carry coumarin, which smells sweet, hay. The science ↓

Stock for Clear Soup

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Cut the meat into small pieces, removing all gristle, fat, and bone.

Make the stock

  1. Place the meat in cold water and bring it gently to a boil.

  2. Simmer for two hours, skimming off the scum as it rises.

  3. Add the mixed vegetables and seasonings.

  4. Do not cook longer than four hours to preserve flavor.

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. Turnip + leektop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together1,046 recipes

    Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).

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

    Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).

  5. Carrot + leektop 3% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together1,310 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

Fresh meat
Provides the main body and savory flavor of the stock as it cooks in water.
Knuckle of veal
Adds gelatin-rich connective tissue that gives the stock body and a fuller mouthfeel.
Sticking of beef
Adds beefy flavor to the stock during long, gentle simmering.
Mixed vegetables
Contribute sweetness and aromatic flavor to the finished stock.

The step that matters

Keep the simmer gentle and skim the scum. Boiling vigorously emulsifies fat and impurities into the liquid, making the stock cloudy. Gentle simmering and skimming as scum rises keep it clear.

Swap the onion

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (meat, veal, beef, carrot, turnip, celery, leek):

  1. Parsnipfits better
  2. Shallotfits about as well
  3. Lettucefits about as well
  4. Onionthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against meat, veal, beef, carrot, turnip, celery, leek. 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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