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How to Prepare Stock

A hearty beef stock made by simmering beef shin, bones, and vegetables in water for several hours.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 12 ingredients
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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 ↓

How to Prepare Stock

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the stock

  1. Combine beef, bones, and rainwater in a saucepan or stock pot.

  2. Bring to a slow boil, skimming off any scum that forms.

Simmer

  1. Add salt, onion with cloves, leeks, celery, turnip, carrot, parsnip, and pepper.

  2. Simmer for 4 to 5 hours at 180°F to 200°F (82°C to 93°C).

  3. Skim off fat and set aside for later use.

Strain

  1. Remove meat, vegetables, and bones, then strain stock into a cool, dust-free container.

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

    Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).

  2. Turnip + parsniptop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together590 recipes

    Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).

  3. Leek + parsniptop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together165 recipes

    Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).

  4. Carrot + parsniptop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together1,097 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-isobutyl-3-methoxypyrazine (green bell pepper, earthy).

  5. Celery + carrottop 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

Beef shin
Releases flavour and gelatin into the stock during long, gentle simmering.
Bones
Add body and gelatin, giving the stock a richer mouthfeel.
Onion
Adds savoury sweetness and aroma as it cooks down in the liquid.
Leeks
Contribute mild, sweet aromatic flavour to the broth.
Carrot
Adds subtle sweetness and colour to the stock.

The step that matters

Skimming the scum and fat. Scum and fat that rise early can cloud the stock and taste greasy. Skimming while the liquid is at a slow boil keeps the stock clear and clean-flavoured.

Swap the clove

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

  1. Thymefits better
  2. Parsleyfits better
  3. Marjoramfits better
  4. Clovethe original

Fit is the average pairing score against beef, onion, leek, celery, turnip, carrot, parsnip. 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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