Name: Stock for Clear Soup
Ingredients: 2 pounds knuckle or scrag of veal, cut into small pieces; 2 ounces salt butter or dripping; 2 ounces lean bacon, cut small; 3 teaspoons salt; ½ teaspoon pepper; ½ cup water; 3 medium-sized onions, sliced; 5 pints hot or cold water

Why it works: Pepper and onion are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 11% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 68,474 recipes. Both carry 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine, which smells earthy, pea. The science ↓

Stock for Clear Soup

Ingredients

2 pounds knuckle or scrag of veal, cut into small pieces
2 ounces salt butter or dripping
2 ounces lean bacon, cut small
3 teaspoons salt
½ teaspoon pepper
½ cup water
3 medium-sized onions, sliced
5 pints hot or cold water

Directions

In an iron pot or stewpan, combine veal, butter, bacon, salt, pepper, water, and onions.
Heat on the fire until boiling, stirring for about 10 minutes until it forms a thick gravy at the bottom.
Add 5 pints of hot or cold water and bring to a boil.
Let it simmer gently for 45 minutes, skimming as needed.
Pass the mixture through a sieve to obtain clear stock.

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.

Pepper + oniontop 11% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together68,474 recipes

Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).
Butter + oniontop 15% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together42,912 recipes

Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).
Veal + oniontop 17% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together6,841 recipes

Shared aroma: 2,4-decadienal (seaweed).
Veal + peppertop 19% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together10,049 recipes

Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).
Butter + peppertop 21% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together85,593 recipes

Shared aroma: trans-2-nonenal (cardboard, fatty).

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

What each ingredient does

Veal knuckle or scrag: Provides the main meat flavour and body that gives the stock its character.
Onions: Add sweetness and aromatic depth as they soften and brown in the fat.
Salt butter or dripping: Carries fat that helps the meat and onions brown and build flavour in the pot.
Lean bacon: Adds smoky, savoury depth to the stock.

The step that matters

Browning the gravy at the bottom of the pot. Stirring until the meat and onions form a thick gravy at the bottom builds concentrated flavour through browning. Stirring too little can scorch the base, while skipping this step leaves the stock flatter in taste.

Swap the onion

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (veal, butter, pepper):

Capsicumfits better
Carrotfits about as well
Potatofits about as well
Onionthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against veal, butter, 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.

Veal Patties50 recipes

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Tomato Soup526 recipes

Brown Bread461 recipes

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Stock for Clear Soup