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Stock for Clear Soup

A veal stock made with veal, butter, bacon, onions, salt, pepper, and water, simmered and strained.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 7 ingredients
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Why it works: Pepper and onion are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 11% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 68,474 recipes. Both carry 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine, which smells earthy, pea. The science ↓

Stock for Clear Soup

Ingredients

Directions

  1. In an iron pot or stewpans, combine veal, butter, bacon, salt, pepper, and onions.

  2. Place on the fire and boil, stirring for about 10 minutes until a whitish thick gravy forms.

  3. Add 5 pints of hot or cold water and bring to a boil.

  4. Reduce heat and let it simmer gently for 45 minutes.

  5. Skim the surface well and strain through a sieve.

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. Pepper + oniontop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together68,474 recipes

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

  2. Butter + oniontop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together42,912 recipes

    Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).

  3. Veal + oniontop 17% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together6,841 recipes

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

  4. Veal + peppertop 19% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together10,049 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).

  5. Butter + peppertop 21% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together85,593 recipes

    Shared aroma: trans-2-nonenal (cardboard, fatty).

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

What each ingredient does

Veal knuckle or scrag
Provides gelatin and meaty flavor that give the stock body and richness.
Onions
Add sweetness and aromatic depth as they soften and release their flavor into the stock.
Bacon
Adds smoky, savory fat that carries flavor through the stock.
Butter
Carries flavor from the aromatics and bacon during the initial cooking.

The step that matters

Skim the surface well. Simmering releases proteins and fat that form a foam and scum on top; 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 (veal, butter, pepper):

  1. Capsicumfits better
  2. Carrotfits about as well
  3. Potatofits about as well
  4. Onionthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against veal, butter, 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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