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Mixed Stock for Soups

A beef stock made by simmering beef and bones with vegetables and seasonings for several hours.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 8 ingredients
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Why it works: Carrot and celery match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 10,173 recipes. Both carry myristicin, which smells spice, warm. The science ↓

Mixed Stock for Soups

Ingredients

Directions

Make the stock

  1. Combine the beef, cracked bones, and water in a covered kettle.

  2. Heat slowly.

  3. Let it boil gently for 6 hours.

  4. Strain the stock and cover it.

  5. Set aside until the next day.

Finish the stock

  1. Before using, remove the fat from the stock.

  2. In a pot, add the stock, salt, carrots, onions, turnip, and celery.

  3. Add enough water to cover the vegetables.

  4. Stew until the vegetables are tender.

  5. Add the cooked vegetables and their water to the stock.

  6. Boil slowly for 30 minutes.

  7. Strain the stock when done.

  8. Add a bay leaf before cooking the second day for extra flavor.

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

    Shared aroma: myristicin (spice, warm).

  2. Carrot + turniptop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together8,002 recipes

    Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).

  3. Turnip + celerytop 2% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together4,418 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. Carrot + oniontop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together21,601 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).

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

What each ingredient does

Lean beef
Releases gelatin and meaty flavor into the water as it simmers slowly.
Beef bones
Add collagen that turns into gelatin, giving the stock body and mouthfeel.
Onions
Contribute sweetness and aromatic depth as they soften in the stock.
Carrots
Add natural sweetness and a rounded, savory background flavor.
Celery
Adds aromatic, herbal notes that build the stock's overall flavor.

The step that matters

Let it boil gently for 6 hours. A hard, rolling boil emulsifies fat into the liquid and makes the stock cloudy. A gentle simmer keeps it clear while collagen slowly converts to gelatin.

Swap the onion

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

  1. Parsnipfits better
  2. Leekfits better
  3. Beetrootfits about as well
  4. Onionthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against beef, carrot, turnip, 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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