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Beef Stock

A clear stock made by simmering beef, vegetables, and herbs in water.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 10 ingredients
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Beef Stock

Why it works: Leek and turnip match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 1,046 recipes. Both carry coumarin, which smells sweet, hay. The science ↓

Beef Stock

Ingredients

Directions

  1. Place the beef pieces in a pot and cover with water.

  2. Bring to a boil and skim off any foam.

  3. Add parsley, thyme, carrots, leeks, onion, turnips, celery, and salt.

  4. Let the meat boil until tender.

  5. Skim off the fat and strain the stock through a fine sieve.

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. Leek + turniptop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together1,046 recipes

    Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).

  2. Parsley + thymetop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together9,057 recipes

    Shared aroma: cuminaldehyde (Spicy, cumin).

  3. Parsley + carrottop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together8,053 recipes

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

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

    Shared aroma: myristicin (spice, warm).

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

    Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).

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

What each ingredient does

Chuck beef
Provides collagen and meat flavor that dissolve into the liquid, giving the stock body.
Onion
Adds sweetness and savory depth as it cooks slowly in the liquid.
Carrots
Contribute natural sweetness and aromatic flavor to the broth.
Leeks
Add a mild, sweet onion-like aroma to the stock.
Celery
Adds aromatic, savory vegetable flavor to the broth.

The step that matters

Skim off the foam at the boil. Foam is made of coagulated proteins and impurities that would cloud the stock and taint its flavor if left to recombine. Skimming early keeps the broth clear and clean-tasting.

Swap the onion

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (beef, parsley, thyme, carrot, leek, turnip, celery):

  1. Parsnipfits better
  2. Shallotfits better
  3. Chivefits better
  4. Onionthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against beef, parsley, thyme, carrot, leek, turnip, celery. 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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