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A Good Broth , Commonly Called Stock

A broth made from beef, hen, veal, and mutton simmered with vegetables and seasonings.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 13 ingredients
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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 ↓

A Good Broth , Commonly Called Stock

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the broth

  1. Combine the beef, hen, veal, and mutton in a large pot.

  2. Add 3 gallons of water and bring to a boil.

  3. Skim the broth well after boiling for some time.

Simmer and strain

  1. Add celery, onions, carrots, parsley roots, leeks, cloves, peppercorns, and salt.

  2. Boil slowly for 6 hours.

  3. Strain the broth and preserve for use.

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

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

  2. Celery + carrottop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together10,173 recipes

    Shared aroma: myristicin (spice, warm).

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

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

  4. Carrot + leektop 3% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together1,310 recipes

    Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).

  5. Celery + leektop 4% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together1,093 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

Lean beef
Releases gelatin and savory flavor into the broth during long simmering.
Old hen
Adds rich flavor and body from its meat and connective tissue.
Knuckle of veal
Contributes gelatin from bones and tissue, giving the stock a fuller body.
Onions
Add sweet, savory depth as they soften and release their flavor into the broth.

The step that matters

Skimming the broth. Skimming removes coagulated proteins and fat that rise during boiling. Removing them keeps the stock clear and prevents a greasy, cloudy result.

Swap the onion

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

  1. Turnipfits better
  2. Parsnipfits better
  3. Shallotfits about as well
  4. Onionthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against beef, veal, mutton, celery, carrot, parsley, leek. 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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