Name: Stocks for All Kinds of Soups
Ingredients: 4 lbs shin of beef; 4 lbs knuckle of veal; ½ lb good lean ham; any poultry trimmings; 2 oz butter; 3 onions; 3 carrots; 2 turnips (omit in summer); 1 head of celery; a few chopped mushrooms (when obtainable); 1 tomato; a bunch of savory herbs (including parsley); 1½ oz coarse sea salt; 3 lumps of sugar; 12 white peppercorns; 6 cloves; 3 small blades of mace; 4 quarts water

Why it works: Carrot and celery match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 10,173 recipes. Both carry myristicin, which smells spice, warm. The science ↓

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.

Carrot + celerytop 1% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together10,173 recipes

Shared aroma: myristicin (spice, warm).
Carrot + turniptop 1% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together8,002 recipes

Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).
Turnip + celerytop 2% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together4,418 recipes

Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).
Onion + turniptop 5% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together7,585 recipes

Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).
Onion + carrottop 6% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together21,601 recipes

Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).

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

What each ingredient does

Beef shin: Releases gelatin and meat flavour into the water during long simmering, giving body to the stock.
Veal knuckle: Its bones and connective tissue release gelatin, giving the stock body and a silky mouthfeel.
Onions: Sautéed in butter first, they build sweet, savoury depth as the base flavour.
Carrots: Add natural sweetness and aromatic depth as they soften in the butter and simmer.
Celery: Contributes savoury, herbal aroma that rounds out the stock's flavour.
Ham: Adds salty, smoky meaty flavour to the stock as it simmers.

The step that matters

Skimming off impurities during the simmer. Proteins and fat that rise to the surface can cloud the stock and taste greasy or scummy. Removing them as they form keeps the stock clear and clean-flavoured. Keep the liquid at a gentle simmer rather than a hard boil so particles are not churned back in.

Swap the turnip

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (beef, veal, ham, butter, onion, carrot, celery):

Leekfits about as well
Potatofits about as well
Turnipthe original
Tomatofits about as well

Fit is the average pairing score against beef, veal, ham, butter, onion, 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.

Stocks for All Kinds of Soups