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To Make a Soup Stock

A clear stock made by simmering veal and beef shins with salt and water.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
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To Make a Soup Stock

Why it works: Veal and beef are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 11% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 3,784 recipes. Both carry 2,6-nonadienal, which smells cucumber, green. The science ↓

To Make a Soup Stock

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Wash the shins clean without soaking them.

  2. Rub a little coarse sea salt over the shins.

  3. Place the shins in an iron pot and add twice as much water as the desired soup quantity.

Simmer

  1. Bring to a boil, skimming off any foam before it boils.

  2. Reduce heat and let it boil gently all day, keeping it covered.

  3. If the soup reduces too much, add more water to maintain the desired quantity.

  4. For a richer soup, add a good piece of juicy meat.

  5. Boil all kinds of bones from roast or boiled meat or poultry for good stock.

Strain and chill

  1. Strain the stock into a stone jar or earthen pot and let it cool in a cool place.

  2. Once cooled, remove the fat from the top.

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. Veal + beeftop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together3,784 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2,6-nonadienal (cucumber, green).

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

What each ingredient does

Veal hind shins
Release collagen and gelatin into the water, giving the stock body and depth of flavour.
Beef hind shins
Add rich, meaty flavour and gelatin that gives the stock body.
Water
Extracts flavour and gelatin from the bones and meat as it simmers.

The step that matters

Skimming the foam before it boils. Foam carries impurities and proteins that would cloud the stock and make it taste muddy, so removing it early keeps the broth clear and clean-flavoured.

“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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