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Soup

General Stock

A simple stock made by simmering meat, bones, vegetables, and herbs in water.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 6 ingredients
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Why it works: Carrot and turnip match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 8,002 recipes. Both carry coumarin, which smells sweet, hay. The science ↓

General Stock

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Chop and break up the meat and bones.

  2. Place them in a pot with cold water.

Simmer

  1. Bring slowly to a boil, skimming off any scum that rises.

  2. Maintain a steady boil for 2 to 6 hours, as time permits.

  3. One hour before finishing, add the carrot, turnip, onion, and bouquet of herbs.

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

    Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).

  2. Carrot + clovetop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together5,873 recipes

    Shared aroma: cuminaldehyde (Spicy, cumin).

  3. Turnip + oniontop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together7,585 recipes

    Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).

  4. Turnip + clovetop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together2,233 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

Meat and bone
Releases gelatin and flavour into the water, giving the stock body and depth.
Carrot
Adds sweetness and aroma as it softens during the long simmer.
Turnip
Contributes mild sweetness and earthy aroma to the stock.
Onion
Adds savoury depth and aroma; the cloves stuck in it add a subtle spice note.

The step that matters

Skimming the scum as it rises. Scum is coagulated protein and impurities. Removing it while bringing the stock to a boil keeps the liquid clear and prevents a cloudy, off-flavoured result.

Swap the clove

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

  1. Celeryfits better
  2. Parsleyfits better
  3. Thymefits better
  4. Clovethe original

Fit is the average pairing score against meat, carrot, turnip, onion. 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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