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First Stock for Clear Soup

A clear beef and veal stock made by simmering bones, meat, vegetables, herbs, and peppercorns for several hours.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 12 ingredients
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Why it works: Thyme and marjoram match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 2,225 recipes. Both carry terpineol, which smells pine, woody. The science ↓

First Stock for Clear Soup

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Cut the meat into small pieces, break up the bone, and remove the marrow.

  2. Place the bones and meat into a stock pot with the cold water and add a little salt.

Simmer and strain

  1. Gently simmer the contents for 30 minutes.

  2. Add the vegetables, herbs, and peppercorns.

  3. Simmer for 5 hours.

  4. Strain into a clean pan and let 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.

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. Thyme + marjoramtop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together2,225 recipes

    Shared aroma: terpineol (pine, woody).

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

    Shared aroma: cuminaldehyde (Spicy, cumin).

  3. Parsley + marjoramtop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together1,979 recipes

    Shared aroma: cuminaldehyde (Spicy, cumin).

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

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

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

    Shared aroma: myristicin (spice, warm).

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

What each ingredient does

Shin of beef
Provides meat flavor and gelatin from connective tissue as it simmers slowly.
Knuckle of veal
Adds body and gelatin from its bones, giving the stock a fuller texture.
Carrots
Contribute sweetness and aromatic depth to the stock's flavor.
Onion
Adds savory depth and aroma as it releases flavor during simmering.
Celery
Adds aromatic, savory flavor to the background of the stock.

The step that matters

Gently simmer the contents for 30 minutes. Keeping the liquid at a gentle simmer rather than a hard boil keeps the stock clear. Vigorous boiling emulsifies fat and proteins into the liquid, making it cloudy.

Swap the onion

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

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

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