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First Stock

A clear stock made by simmering beef or veal, vegetables, herbs, and water for four hours.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 9 ingredients
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Why it works: Parsley and thyme match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 9,057 recipes. Both carry cuminaldehyde, which smells Spicy, cumin. The science ↓

First Stock

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Cut the meat into 1‑inch pieces and remove the fat.

  2. Saw the bones into pieces.

Make the stock

  1. Place the meat and bones in a large pot, add water and salt, and bring to a boil.

  2. Remove from heat and skim off any scum.

  3. Add cleaned and halved vegetables and herbs.

  4. Simmer gently for 4 hours without boiling.

Strain and clarify

  1. Strain the stock and let it cool.

  2. Remove the fat with a spoon and wipe the jelly surface with a clean hot cloth.

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

    Shared aroma: cuminaldehyde (Spicy, cumin).

  2. Carrot + parsleytop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together8,053 recipes

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

  3. Carrot + turniptop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together8,002 recipes

    Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).

  4. Turnip + parsleytop 2% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together2,842 recipes

    Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).

  5. Carrot + thymetop 3% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together4,563 recipes

    Shared aroma: cuminaldehyde (Spicy, cumin).

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

What each ingredient does

Shin of beef or knuckle of veal
Bones and connective tissue release gelatin, giving the stock body and a jelly-like set when cooled.
Carrot
Adds natural sweetness and aromatic depth to the stock.
Onion
Contributes sweetness and savory aroma as it simmers.
Turnip
Adds mild sweetness and earthy flavor to the broth.

The step that matters

Simmer gently without boiling. A rolling boil emulsifies fat into the liquid and breaks the stock cloudy. A gentle simmer keeps it clear while collagen slowly converts to gelatin over the long cook.

Swap the onion

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

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

Fit is the average pairing score against beef, carrot, turnip, parsley, thyme. 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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