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A rich broth made by simmering beef, veal, vegetables, and seasonings for hours.

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

Stock

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Remove marrow and excess fat from the beef.

  2. Cut the beef into small pieces, about the size of an egg.

  3. Break the bone into smaller pieces to extract more gelatin.

Make the stock

  1. Place the meat and bones in a stock pot with 6 pints of cold water.

  2. Slowly bring to a boil, skimming off any scum that rises to the surface.

  3. Add 1 teaspoon of salt to help bring more scum to the surface.

  4. Once the scum is removed and the stock is boiling, add the vegetables and peppercorns.

  5. Simmer slowly for 6 hours, allowing a little steam to escape from the pot lid.

Strain and cool

  1. Strain the stock through a fine sieve.

  2. Let the strained stock cool.

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

    Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).

  3. Turnip + celerytop 2% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together4,418 recipes

    Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).

  4. Turnip + oniontop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together7,585 recipes

    Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).

  5. Carrot + oniontop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together21,601 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
Releases flavour and gelatin into the water, giving the stock its body and savoury taste.
Veal knuckle
Its bones and connective tissue release gelatin, giving the finished stock a richer texture.
Onions
Add sweetness and aroma as they cook slowly in the stock.

The step that matters

Skimming the scum as the stock comes to a boil. Proteins and impurities that rise to the surface cloud the stock and can taste bitter. Removing them early keeps the stock clear and clean-flavoured, so it is best skimmed before the vegetables are added.

Swap the onion

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

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

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