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Grand Bouillon— General Stock

A clear beef, veal, and chicken stock simmered with vegetables and salt for four hours.

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

Grand Bouillon— General Stock

Ingredients

Directions

Start the stock

  1. In a large stock pot, combine the beef, beef bones, veal knuckle, and chicken giblets.

  2. Moisten with 5 gallons of cold water and set over low heat.

  3. Once boiling, remove the scum and add 1 pint of cold water to help clear more scum.

Simmer and strain

  1. When the stock is clear, add the salt and remaining ingredients.

  2. Simmer gently for 4 hours, skimming off fat occasionally.

  3. Strain the stock through a cloth and set aside for future 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. Turnip + leektop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together1,046 recipes

    Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).

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

    Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).

  5. Carrot + leektop 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

Lean beef
Gives the stock its deep, meaty flavour as it simmers.
Cracked beef bones
Release gelatin and marrow flavour, giving the stock body and richness.
Veal knuckle
Adds collagen that gives the stock a fuller, silkier body.
Chicken giblets
Add extra savoury flavour and depth to the stock.
Onions
Contribute sweetness and aromatic depth as they cook down.

The step that matters

Removing the scum at the start. Scum is coagulated protein and impurities that rise when the liquid first boils. Removing it keeps the stock clear and clean-tasting, so it should be skimmed before the stock is allowed to simmer.

Swap the onion

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

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

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