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To Make Strong Broth for Soup-and Gravy

A beef, veal, and mutton broth simmered with onions, leeks, celery, carrots, turnips, herbs, cloves, allspice, and salt for six hours.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 13 ingredients
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Why it works: Leek and turnip 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 ↓

To Make Strong Broth for Soup-and Gravy

Ingredients

Directions

  1. Place the shin of beef, knuckle of veal, and scrag of mutton in a large pot with 5 gallons of water.

  2. Bring to a boil, skim off any impurities, and add the onions, leeks, celery, carrots, turnips, sweet herbs, cloves, allspice, and salt.

  3. Skim again and let it simmer gently for 6 hours.

  4. Strain the broth and set aside for later use.

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. Leek + turniptop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together1,046 recipes

    Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).

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

    Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).

  5. Leek + carrottop 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

Shin of beef
Releases collagen and gelatin into the water, giving the broth body and mouthfeel.
Knuckle of veal
Adds collagen-rich bone and connective tissue, contributing gelatin for a fuller texture.
Scrag of mutton
Adds meaty, savoury flavour and additional gelatin to the stock.
Onions
Contribute sweetness and depth as they cook down into the broth.
Carrots
Add gentle sweetness and rounded flavour to the broth.

The step that matters

Skim again and let it simmer gently for 6 hours.. A rolling boil emulsifies fat and impurities into the liquid, leaving it cloudy and greasy. A gentle simmer keeps the broth clear and lets collagen and flavour extract slowly.

Swap the onion

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

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

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