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Brown Soup Stock

A beef stock made by simmering hind shin, vegetables, and spices for several hours.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 10 ingredients
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Brown 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 ↓

Brown Soup Stock

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Wipe and cut the meat into pieces.

  2. Put the marrow bones and half the meat into the cold water in a kettle and soak for half an hour.

  3. Before heating, add the spices and herbs.

Brown and simmer

  1. Brown the onions and the remaining meat.

  2. Add the browned onions and remaining meat to the stock.

  3. Add the finely cut vegetables.

  4. Simmer for six to seven hours.

Strain and clear

  1. Strain the stock.

  2. Remove the fat.

  3. Clear the stock with the whites and shells of 3 eggs when cold.

  4. Bring to a boil.

  5. Cool for three minutes.

  6. Strain through a 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.

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. Celery + parsleytop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together6,810 recipes

    Shared aroma: 4'-methylacetophenone (bitter almond).

  5. Celery + turniptop 2% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together4,418 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

Hind shin of beef
Provides meat flavour and collagen that gives the stock body as it simmers.
Marrow bones (in the method)
Release fat and gelatin into the water, adding richness and body to the stock.
Eggs (in the method)
Whites and shells collect cloudy particles as they set, clearing the stock.
Onions
Browning them adds deeper, sweeter savoury colour and flavour to the stock.

The step that matters

Clear the stock with the whites and shells of 3 eggs when cold.. The egg whites and shells bind suspended particles as they coagulate, so they can be strained out. Adding them to hot stock can cook them into the liquid and leave it cloudy.

Swap the clove

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

  1. Thymefits better
  2. Marjoramfits better
  3. Tarragonfits better
  4. Clovethe original

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