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To Clarify Stock

A method to clarify stock using eggs, beef, and shells, then simmering and double-straining.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 3 ingredients
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Why it works: Egg and beef are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 31% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 8,305 recipes. Both carry 2-nonenal, which smells fatty, green. The science ↓

To Clarify Stock

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Let the stock cool and carefully remove all fat.

  2. Pour the stock through a strainer to leave sediment behind.

  3. Finely chop the lean raw beef.

Clarify

  1. Add the chopped beef to the stock with the whisked egg whites and crushed shells.

  2. Whisk the stock over heat until scum rises.

  3. Simmer gently for 1 hour with the lid half off.

Strain

  1. Strain the stock through a tammy cloth over a deep pan.

  2. Lift the cloth without squeezing.

  3. If necessary, strain the stock a second time.

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. Egg + beeftop 31% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together8,305 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).

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

What each ingredient does

Stock
The liquid being clarified, cleared of its fat and sediment.
Eggs
Egg whites coagulate as they heat, trapping sediment and cloudiness so the liquid clears.
Lean raw beef
Lean beef adds meaty flavour and, as it heats, collects fine particles for straining out.

The step that matters

Simmer gently. Boiling breaks up the egg and beef raft and churns the trapped particles back into the stock, leaving it cloudy.

“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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