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Brown Soup-stock

A beef stock made by simmering bones, meat, vegetables, and spices for several hours.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 10 ingredients
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Why it works: Celery and parsley match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 6,810 recipes. Both carry 4'-methylacetophenone, which smells bitter almond. The science ↓

Brown Soup-stock

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Wipe and cut the meat and bones into small pieces.

  2. Put the marrow, bones, half of the meat, and cold water into a kettle.

  3. Soak for half an hour before heating.

Flavour and simmer

  1. Add spices and herbs.

  2. Brown the onions and the remaining meat.

  3. Add them to the stock.

  4. Add the finely chopped vegetables.

  5. Simmer for six to seven hours and strain.

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

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

  2. Turnip + celerytop 2% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together4,418 recipes

    Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).

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

    Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).

  4. Onion + turniptop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together7,585 recipes

    Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).

  5. Turnip + clovetop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together2,233 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 and bones that release gelatin and flavour into the stock during long simmering.
Onion
Browning adds deeper colour and roasted, savoury flavour to the finished stock.
Celery
Adds aromatic flavour to the stock as it simmers with the other vegetables.

The step that matters

Simmer for six to seven hours and strain. A long, gentle simmer below a boil extracts gelatin and flavour slowly. A rolling boil makes the stock cloudy and greasy, so keep the heat low.

Swap the clove

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

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

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