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On Stock, and Clear Soups

A clear soup made by simmering meat, bone, and vegetables 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 ↓

On Stock, and Clear Soups

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Cut the soup meat and bone into pieces.

Make the soup

  1. Add the vegetables, pepper, salt, and spices to the pot.

  2. Cover with water and place on a brisk fire.

  3. Simmer for about five hours until the meat is thoroughly cooked.

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. 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

Meat
Gives the broth its savory flavor and body as it cooks down.
Bone
Adds gelatin and depth to the broth, giving it more body.
Onions
Contribute sweetness and aroma to the broth as they cook.
Carrots
Add gentle sweetness and color to the broth.
Leeks
Add a mild onion-like aroma and subtle sweetness to the broth.

The step that matters

Simmer for about five hours. A gentle simmer keeps the broth clear, while a hard boil breaks up fat and solids and clouds it. Long, slow cooking draws flavor and gelatin from the meat and bone.

Swap the onion

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

  1. Beetrootfits better
  2. Lettucefits better
  3. Spinachfits better
  4. Onionthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against meat, carrot, leek, celery, turnip, parsnip, pepper. 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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