Why it works: Beef and veal are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 11% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 3,784 recipes. Both carry 2,6-nonadienal, which smells cucumber, green. The science ↓
To Make Soup Stock
Ingredients
Directions
Prepare
Wash the shins clean and rub coarse sea salt into them.
Place the shins in a flat-bottomed pot and add twice as much cold water as you expect to have soup.
Simmer
Gradually heat the pot on the stove, skimming the surface before it boils.
Let it simmer slowly all day, adding more water if it boils away too much.
Strain and cool
Strain the stock into a stone jar or earthen pot.
Let it cool to remove the fat.
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.
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Beef + vealtop 11% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together3,784 recipes
Shared aroma: 2,6-nonadienal (cucumber, green).
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Beef + meattop 12% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together2,533 recipes
Shared aroma: 1-octen-3-one (mushroom, metallic).
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Veal + meattop 18% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together1,890 recipes
Shared aroma: 2,4-decadienal (seaweed).
Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs
What each ingredient does
- Beef hind shin
- Provides the main flavour and gelatin-rich body for the stock.
- Veal shin
- Adds extra gelatin and a milder, richer body to the stock.
- Cold water
- Serves as the cooking liquid that slowly extracts flavour and collagen from the bones.
The step that matters
Skimming before the boil. Heating gradually and skimming foam as it rises removes coagulated proteins and impurities, keeping the stock clear and clean-tasting rather than 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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