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Strong Broth for Soup and Gravy

A hearty broth made from beef, veal, and mutton with onions, leeks, celery, carrots, turnips, herbs, cloves, allspice, and salt.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 13 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 ↓

Strong Broth for Soup and Gravy

Ingredients

Directions

  1. Place the beef, veal, and mutton in a large pot with 5 gallons of water.

  2. Bring the mixture to a boil and skim off any impurities.

  3. Add the onions, leeks, celery, carrots, turnips, sweet herbs, cloves, allspice, and salt, then skim again.

  4. Let it simmer gently for several hours.

  5. Strain the broth and set aside for later 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.

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. Celery + carrottop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together10,173 recipes

    Shared aroma: myristicin (spice, warm).

  3. Carrot + turniptop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together8,002 recipes

    Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).

  4. Celery + turniptop 2% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together4,418 recipes

    Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).

  5. Leek + carrottop 3% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together1,310 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

Beef shin
Releases collagen and gelatin into the water, giving the broth body and mouthfeel.
Veal knuckle
Adds collagen-rich connective tissue that gels as it cooks, enriching body and richness.
Mutton scrag
Contributes meaty flavour and additional collagen to the stock.
Onions
Add sweetness and depth as they soften and release their sugars into the broth.
Leeks
Contribute a mild, sweet onion-like aroma to the broth.

The step that matters

Skimming the impurities. Proteins and fat that rise to the surface during the first boil can cloud the broth and taste greasy if left in. Skimming early and again after adding vegetables keeps the broth clear and clean-flavoured.

Swap the onion

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (beef, veal, mutton, leek, celery, carrot, turnip):

  1. Parsnipfits better
  2. Chivefits about as well
  3. Shallotfits about as well
  4. Onionthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against beef, veal, mutton, leek, celery, carrot, turnip. 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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