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Stock for Clear Soup

A clear beef stock made by simmering beef, bones, vegetables, herbs, and spices for several hours.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 12 ingredients
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Why it works: Thyme and summer savory match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 214 recipes. Both carry beta-phellandrene, which smells minty, terpene. The science ↓

Stock for Clear Soup

Ingredients

Directions

Make the stock

  1. Crack the bones and extract the marrow, adding it to the stock.

  2. Place 5 pounds of beef in 5 quarts of cold water in a kettle.

  3. Heat gradually and let it boil slowly for 6 to 7 hours.

  4. Check occasionally and replenish with boiling water if needed.

  5. After 7 hours, remove the meat for another use.

  6. Strain the stock and let it cool.

  7. Skim off the fat in the morning and return the stock to the kettle.

Season and finish

  1. Add onion, celery, sage, parsley, thyme, summer savory, bay leaves, peppercorns, and cloves.

  2. Boil gently for 10 to 20 minutes, seasoning with salt and pepper to taste.

  3. Strain through a fine sieve before serving.

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. Thyme + summer savorytop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together214 recipes

    Shared aroma: beta-phellandrene (minty, terpene).

  2. Sage + summer savorytop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together237 recipes

    Shared aroma: beta-phellandrene (minty, terpene).

  3. Sage + thymetop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together1,485 recipes

    Shared aroma: beta-phellandrene (minty, terpene).

  4. Parsley + thymetop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together9,057 recipes

    Shared aroma: cuminaldehyde (Spicy, cumin).

  5. Parsley + summer savorytop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together241 recipes

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

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

What each ingredient does

Lean beef
Provides the main meaty flavor and gelatin-rich body as it simmers slowly in water.
Bones (in the method)
Release marrow and collagen during long simmering, adding richness and body to the stock.
Cold water
Slow heating from cold draws out flavor and proteins, producing a clearer, fuller stock.
Peppercorns
Add gentle, aromatic heat that rounds out the stock's savory flavor.

The step that matters

Heat gradually and keep the stock at a slow simmer. Boiling hard emulsifies fat and churns particles into the liquid, making the stock cloudy. A gentle simmer keeps it clear while the flavor and gelatin develop.

Swap the onion

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (beef, celery, sage, parsley, thyme, summer savory, clove):

  1. Carrotfits better
  2. Turnipfits better
  3. Parsnipfits better
  4. Onionthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against beef, celery, sage, parsley, thyme, summer savory, clove. 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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