Why it works: Beef and egg 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 ↓
Stock for Soup
Ingredients
Directions
Make the stock
Place bones and shin of beef in a large pot.
Cover with water and bring to a boil.
Simmer for 4 to 5 hours, then strain the liquid.
Remove all fat from the strained stock.
Clarify
Add small pieces of raw beef, boil, then strain again.
Add white of egg for additional clarity.
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.
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Beef + eggtop 31% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked 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
- Bones
- Release gelatin and flavor into the water during long simmering, giving the stock body.
- Shin of beef
- Adds meaty flavor and gelatin-rich connective tissue that gives the stock more body.
- Raw beef
- Its proteins bind to cloudy particles as they heat, so they can be strained out for a clearer stock.
- White of egg
- Its proteins coagulate and trap fine particles, helping the stock become clearer.
The step that matters
Remove all fat from the strained stock. Fat that stays in the stock can make it greasy and cloudy. Fat floats and solidifies when cool, so removing it before clarifying gives a cleaner result.
“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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