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Consomme Stock

A clear beef stock made with shin, carrots, onions, leeks, celery, parsley roots, cloves, peppercorns, bay leaf, and egg whites.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 12 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 ↓

Consomme Stock

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Combine the beef, carrots, onions, leeks, celery, parsley roots, cloves, peppercorns, bay leaf, and egg whites and shells in a stockpot.

  2. Moisten with broth and water, stirring thoroughly for 2-3 minutes.

Simmer

  1. Place on the hot range and add chicken or bones if available.

  2. Simmer slowly for about 4 hours, skimming off grease.

Strain and store

  1. Strain through a wet cloth into a glazed earthenware crock and store in a cool place.

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. Carrot + celerytop 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. Leek + celerytop 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

Shin of beef
Provides rich meaty flavor and body to the stock as it simmers.
Egg whites and shells
Bind fine particles during clarification so they can be strained out, leaving the liquid clear.
Onions
Add sweetness and aromatic depth to the stock's flavor base.
Carrots
Contribute gentle sweetness and color to the stock.

The step that matters

Skimming off grease while simmering. Simmering must stay slow and gentle so fat and impurities rise to the surface for skimming; a hard boil emulsifies fat into the liquid and clouds the stock.

Swap the clove

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

  1. Thymefits better
  2. Marjoramfits better
  3. Tarragonfits better
  4. Clovethe original

Fit is the average pairing score against beef, carrot, onion, leek, celery, parsley, egg. 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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