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Brown Soup Stock

A beef stock made by browning meat and simmering with vegetables and seasonings.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 13 ingredients
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Brown Soup Stock

Why it works: Marjoram and thyme match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 2,225 recipes. Both carry terpineol, which smells pine, woody. The science ↓

Brown Soup Stock

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the beef

  1. Remove beef from packaging and wipe with a damp cheesecloth.

  2. Remove meat from bone and cut into 1‑inch cubes.

  3. Brown one‑third of the meat in a hot frying pan with marrow from the bone.

  4. Place remaining meat, bone, and fat in a stock pot.

Simmer the stock

  1. Add cold water and let stand for 30 minutes.

  2. Place on heat, add browned meat, and bring to a boil.

  3. Boil for 5 minutes, then skim the surface.

  4. Cover and simmer for 6 hours, keeping below boiling point.

  5. Add vegetables and seasoning during the last hour of cooking.

  6. Strain, cool, and clarify the stock.

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. Marjoram + thymetop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together2,225 recipes

    Shared aroma: terpineol (pine, woody).

  2. Parsley + thymetop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together9,057 recipes

    Shared aroma: cuminaldehyde (Spicy, cumin).

  3. Marjoram + parsleytop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together1,979 recipes

    Shared aroma: cuminaldehyde (Spicy, cumin).

  4. Parsley + carrottop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together8,053 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2,4-decadienal (seaweed).

  5. Carrot + celerytop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together10,173 recipes

    Shared aroma: myristicin (spice, warm).

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

What each ingredient does

Shin of beef
Provides meat flavor and collagen that gives the finished stock body after long simmering.
Bone (in the method)
Releases gelatin and marrow flavor into the stock during the long simmer.
Onion
Adds sweetness and aroma as it cooks down into the stock.
Carrot
Adds subtle sweetness and aroma to the stock.
Celery
Adds aromatic depth and savory background flavor to the stock.

The step that matters

Keep the stock below a boil during the long simmer. Boiling agitates the liquid and emulsifies fat and impurities into the stock, making it cloudy. A gentle simmer lets fat and particles rise to be skimmed, giving a clearer result.

Swap the clove

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

  1. Winter savoryfits better
  2. Tarragonfits better
  3. Rosemaryfits better
  4. Clovethe original

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