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Vegetable Stock

A clear broth made by simmering carrots, onion, lettuce, celery, parsnip, herbs, and salt in water.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 8 ingredients
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Vegetable Stock

Why it works: Carrot and parsnip match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 1,097 recipes. Both carry 2-isobutyl-3-methoxypyrazine, which smells green bell pepper, earthy. The science ↓

Vegetable Stock

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Chop the vegetables.

  2. Place them in a stewpan and cover with water.

  3. Add the coarse sea salt.

Cook and strain

  1. Stew gently for 4 hours until the vegetables are a pulp.

  2. Skim and strain into a stockpot 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.

Photo for illustrative purposes only · Contact us to use it

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

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

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

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

  3. Carrot + celerytop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together10,173 recipes

    Shared aroma: myristicin (spice, warm).

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

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

  5. Parsnip + parsleytop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together484 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

Onion
Adds savoury sweetness and aroma to the stock as it slowly cooks.
Celery
Contributes aromatic flavour and body to the stock as it breaks down.
Carrot
Adds natural sweetness and colour to the stock.
Lettuce
Breaks down during the long stew, adding mild vegetable flavour and body.

The step that matters

Stew gently for 4 hours. A gentle simmer extracts flavour slowly and keeps the stock clear. A hard boil makes it cloudy and can give it a bitter, muddy taste.

Swap the onion

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (carrot, clove, lettuce, celery, parsnip, parsley):

  1. Turnipfits better
  2. Beetrootfits better
  3. Leekfits better
  4. Onionthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against carrot, clove, lettuce, celery, parsnip, parsley. 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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