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Soup Stock

A beef stock made by simmering beef shin with water, vegetables, and spices for several hours.

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

Why it works: Carrot and parsley match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 8,053 recipes. Both carry 2,4-decadienal, which smells seaweed. The science ↓

Soup Stock

Ingredients

Directions

Make the stock

  1. Combine beef shin and cold water in a large pot and cook for 2 hours, gradually bringing to a boil.

  2. Add chopped vegetables, bay leaf, cloves, mace, celery, and parsley once boiling.

  3. Simmer the soup for at least 5 to 6 hours, covered tightly.

Strain and cool

  1. Strain the soup into a large earthenware vessel and let it cool uncovered; the fat will help preserve the 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.

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 + parsleytop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together8,053 recipes

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

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

    Shared aroma: myristicin (spice, warm).

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

    Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).

  4. Celery + parsleytop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together6,810 recipes

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

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

Beef shin
Releases collagen and flavour into the water, giving the stock body and richness.
Carrot
Adds sweetness and aromatic depth to the stock as it simmers.
Onion
Contributes savoury sweetness and aroma as it cooks down in the liquid.
Turnip
Adds mild sweetness and a soft earthy background to the stock.

The step that matters

Bring the pot to a gentle simmer, not a hard boil. Vigorous boiling emulsifies fat and clouds the stock, while a slow simmer keeps it clear and lets collagen dissolve gradually into a richer liquid.

Swap the mace

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

  1. Thymefits better
  2. Marjoramfits better
  3. Winter savoryfits better
  4. Macethe original

Fit is the average pairing score against beef, carrot, turnip, onion, clove, celery, parsley. 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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