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Soup Stock

A clear beef stock made by simmering beef shank, water, salt, onion, carrot, celery, and seasoning.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 7 ingredients
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Soup Stock

Why it works: Carrot and celery match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 10,173 recipes. Both carry myristicin, which smells spice, warm. The science ↓

Soup Stock

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the stock

  1. Cut the beef shank into 2‑inch pieces and wash in cold water.

  2. Place the meat in a soup pot with 6 quarts of cold water and 3 teaspoons of salt.

  3. Bring to a boil over moderate heat, then skim the surface.

  4. Cover and simmer gently for 2 hours.

  5. Skim again, then add the onion, carrot, and celery.

  6. Continue boiling until the meat is tender.

Chill and clarify

  1. Strain the soup through a fine sieve and refrigerate overnight.

  2. The next day, remove the solidified fat from the jelly.

Serve

  1. To serve, melt the jelly, season with salt and pepper, and bring to a boil.

  2. If desired, add cooked rice or macaroni before serving.

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.

Photo for illustrative purposes only · Contact us to use it

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 + celerytop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together10,173 recipes

    Shared aroma: myristicin (spice, warm).

  2. Celery + peppertop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together16,012 recipes

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

  3. Carrot + peppertop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together14,555 recipes

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

  4. Onion + carrottop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together21,601 recipes

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

  5. Beef + oniontop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together17,092 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

Beef shank
Provides the meat, bone and connective tissue that give the stock body and gelatin.
Cold water
Serves as the liquid that slowly extracts flavour and gelatin from the beef.
Celery
Adds aromatic flavour to the stock as it simmers.
Onion
Adds aromatic sweetness and depth to the stock as it simmers.

The step that matters

Simmer gently after the first boil. A hard, rolling boil emulsifies fat and clouds the stock, while gentle simmering keeps it clear. Skimming removes impurities that would otherwise cloud the liquid.

Swap the onion

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (beef, carrot, celery, pepper):

  1. Capsicumfits better
  2. Parsnipfits better
  3. Turnipfits better
  4. Onionthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against beef, carrot, celery, 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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