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Stock for Erowk Soup

Beef and bacon stock for Erowk soup, simmered with onions, sweet herbs, and cloves.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 7 ingredients
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Why it works: Beef and onion are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 7% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 17,092 recipes. Both carry 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine, which smells earthy, pea. The science ↓

Stock for Erowk Soup

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Ensure the kettle is clean and dry.

  2. Cut the beef into slices and place it at the bottom of the saucepan.

  3. Add the salt butter and a little water to prevent burning.

  4. Slice the bacon and add it to the beef.

Make the stock

  1. Cover the saucepan tightly and extract the gravy.

  2. Pour in enough boiling water for the desired quantity of soup.

  3. Add the chopped onions, sweet herbs, and cloves.

  4. Let it stew slowly for 4-5 hours until the meat is tender.

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. Beef + oniontop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together17,092 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).

  2. Onion + clovetop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together16,901 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-nonanone (fruity, floral).

  3. Butter + oniontop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together42,912 recipes

    Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).

  4. Beef + buttertop 16% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together10,847 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-furfurylthiol (coffee, roasted).

  5. Beef + clovetop 18% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together5,462 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

Lean beef
Provides the meat flavour and gelatin that give the stock body after slow cooking.
Salt butter
Adds fat that carries flavour and helps brown the meat at the start.
Lean bacon
Adds smoky, savoury fat and depth to the stock.
Onions
Contribute sweetness and aromatic flavour as they soften in the liquid.
Cloves
Add a warm, aromatic spice note to the stock.

The step that matters

Adding a little water to the butter-and-beef base. Water in the pan stops the butter and meat sugars from scorching before the juices release. Scorching would make the stock taste bitter and burnt.

Swap the clove

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (beef, butter, onion):

  1. Garlicfits better
  2. Thymefits better
  3. Pepperfits better
  4. Clovethe original

Fit is the average pairing score against beef, butter, onion. 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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