Name: Stock for Clear Soup
Ingredients: 2 pounds knuckle or scrag of veal, cut into small pieces; 2 ounces salt butter or dripping; 2 ounces lean bacon, cut small; 3 teaspoons salt; ½ teaspoon pepper; ½ cup water; 3 medium onions, sliced

Why it works: Pepper and onion are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 11% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 68,474 recipes. Both carry 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine, which smells earthy, pea. The science ↓

Stock for Clear Soup

Ingredients

2 pounds knuckle or scrag of veal, cut into small pieces
2 ounces salt butter or dripping
2 ounces lean bacon, cut small
3 teaspoons salt
½ teaspoon pepper
½ cup water
3 medium onions, sliced

Directions

Make the stock

In an iron pot or stewpan, combine veal, butter, bacon, salt, pepper, water, and onions.
Heat on the fire until boiling, stirring for about 10 minutes until it forms a thick gravy.
Add 5 pints of hot or cold water and bring to a boil.
Reduce heat and let it simmer gently for 45 minutes.

Clarify and strain

Skim the surface, then pass the stock through a sieve to achieve a clear liquid.

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.

Pepper + oniontop 11% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together68,474 recipes

Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).
Butter + oniontop 15% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together42,912 recipes

Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).
Veal + oniontop 17% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together6,841 recipes

Shared aroma: 2,4-decadienal (seaweed).
Veal + peppertop 19% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together10,049 recipes

Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).
Butter + peppertop 21% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together85,593 recipes

Shared aroma: trans-2-nonenal (cardboard, fatty).

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

What each ingredient does

Veal knuckle or scrag: Releases gelatin and savoury flavour into the liquid, giving the stock body.
Bacon: Adds smoky, savoury fat that deepens the flavour of the stock.
Onions: Contribute sweetness and aromatic flavour as they cook down into the stock.
Butter or dripping: Carries flavour from the meat and onions during the initial browning-style gravy step.

The step that matters

Forming the thick gravy before adding water. Stirring the meat, fat and onions until they thicken builds the base flavour. Adding the liquid too early leaves the stock thin and less savoury.

Swap the onion

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (veal, butter, pepper):

Capsicumfits better
Carrotfits about as well
Potatofits about as well
Onionthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against veal, butter, pepper. 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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Stock for Clear Soup