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Beef Soup Stock

A clear beef stock made by simmering beef, bones, vegetables, and seasonings, then strained.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 11 ingredients
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Why it works: Carrot and parsley match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 8,053 recipes. Both carry 2,4-decadienal, which smells seaweed. The science ↓

Beef Soup Stock

Ingredients

Directions

Simmer

  1. Boil the beef, bones, and vegetables in 2 quarts of water over low heat.

  2. Add pepper and coarse sea salt, skim occasionally.

  3. After 2 hours, add sherry.

Strain and add more

  1. Strain through a fine strainer or cheesecloth.

  2. Add a turkey leg and boil for 1.5 hours.

  3. Add ½ pound finely chopped beef and cook for another 30 minutes. Strain.

  4. Add a little gelatin to the stock 5 minutes before straining.

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 + parsleytop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together8,053 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2,4-decadienal (seaweed).

  2. Parsley + peppertop 2% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together34,122 recipes

    Shared aroma: 4'-methylacetophenone (bitter almond).

  3. Potato + oniontop 3% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together9,023 recipes

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

  4. Potato + carrottop 4% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together3,107 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-isobutyl-3-methoxypyrazine (green bell pepper, earthy).

  5. Potato + parsleytop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,855 recipes

    Shared aroma: 4'-methylacetophenone (bitter almond).

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

What each ingredient does

Round beef
Releases meat flavor and savory depth into the stock as it simmers.
Beef bones
Add gelatin and body, giving the stock a richer mouthfeel.
Onion
Adds sweetness and aromatic depth as it cooks down in the liquid.
Carrots
Contribute natural sweetness and rounded flavor to the broth.
Potatoes
Add starch that gives the stock a slightly fuller body.
Tomato
Adds acidity and brightness that balances the rich meat flavors.

The step that matters

Boil the beef, bones, and vegetables over low heat. Keeping the liquid at a gentle simmer rather than a hard boil lets fat and impurities rise to be skimmed, and prevents them from emulsifying into the broth, which keeps the stock clear.

Swap the onion

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (beef, potato, carrot, tomato, parsley, pepper, sherry):

  1. Capsicumfits better
  2. Parsnipfits about as well
  3. Spinachfits about as well
  4. Onionthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against beef, potato, carrot, tomato, parsley, pepper, sherry. 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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