Why it works: Turnip and leek 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 ↓
To Make Two Quarts of Stock
Ingredients
Directions
Prepare the meat and bone
Cut all the meat from the bone of the shin of beef.
Remove the fat.
Break the bone in half.
Remove all the marrow.
Place the meat and bone in a large pot.
Make the stock
Add 5 pints of water to the pot.
Stir in ½ teaspoon of coarse sea salt to help the scum rise.
Cover the pot.
Bring to a boil quickly.
Scrape the carrots.
Cut the carrots into small, fancy shapes.
Peel the turnip and onion.
Cut the turnip and onion into quarters.
Wash the leek and celery in cold water.
Remove any scum that rises to the surface.
Remove any fat that rises to the surface.
Add all the vegetables to the pot.
Let the stock simmer gently for 5 hours.
Occasionally check the stock.
Remove scum.
Add cold water as needed.
Strain and set
Place a clean cloth over a large basin.
Set a sieve on top.
Pour the stock through the sieve and cloth.
Pour the strained stock into the basin.
Let the stock cool until the next day.
Let it set into a jelly.
Remove all the fat by wiping the top with a hot, clean cloth.
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.
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Turnip + leektop 1% of all pairsSmell alikestrongCooked together1,046 recipes
Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).
-
Carrot + celerytop 1% of all pairsSmell alikestrongCooked together10,173 recipes
Shared aroma: myristicin (spice, warm).
-
Turnip + carrottop 1% of all pairsSmell alikestrongCooked together8,002 recipes
Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).
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Turnip + celerytop 2% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together4,418 recipes
Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).
-
Leek + carrottop 3% of all pairsSmell alikestrongCooked together1,310 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
- Shin of beef
- Releases gelatin and savoury flavour into the stock as it simmers slowly.
- Water
- Extracts flavour and gelatin from the meat and bone, forming the stock liquid.
- Onion
- Adds aromatic sweetness and depth of flavour to the finished stock.
- Carrots
- Contribute gentle sweetness and colour to the stock.
- Leek
- Adds mild, sweet aromatic flavour to the stock.
- Celery
- Adds fresh, aromatic background flavour to the stock.
The step that matters
Simmer gently rather than boil. A hard boil emulsifies fat and clouds the stock, while gentle simmering keeps it clear. Skimming scum as it rises removes impurities that would otherwise cloud the liquid.
Swap the onion
How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (beef, turnip, leek, carrot, celery):
- Parsnipfits better
- Lettucefits better
- Beetrootfits better
- Onionthe original
Fit is the average pairing score against beef, turnip, leek, carrot, 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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