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Drink

Common Stock

A savory stock made from bones, giblets, trimmings, herbs, onion, carrots, celery, salt, pepper, and a flavoring extract.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 13 ingredients
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Why it works: Carrot and celery match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 10,173 recipes. Both carry myristicin, which smells spice, warm. The science ↓

Common Stock

Ingredients

Directions

Make the stock

  1. Combine bones, giblets, and trimmings in a large pot.

  2. Add sweet herbs, onion, carrots, celery, salt, and pepper.

  3. Cover with water and bring to a boil.

  4. Reduce heat and simmer for several hours to extract flavors.

Thicken the stock

  1. For thickening, melt 2 ounces of butter in a saucepan.

  2. Gradually add 2.5 ounces of flour, stirring until smooth.

  3. Cook the roux slowly until velvety, then add to the stock.

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

    Shared aroma: myristicin (spice, warm).

  2. Celery + peppertop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together16,012 recipes

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

  3. Carrot + peppertop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together14,555 recipes

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

  4. Onion + carrottop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together21,601 recipes

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

  5. Beef + oniontop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together17,092 recipes

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

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

What each ingredient does

Bones from cooked meat
Release collagen during long simmering, which gives the stock body and a richer mouthfeel.
Fresh giblets
Add deep meaty flavor to the stock during the long simmer.
Onion
Adds savory aroma and sweetness as it softens and releases its flavor into the liquid.
Carrots
Contribute gentle sweetness and aromatic flavor to the simmering stock.

The step that matters

Cook the roux slowly until velvety. Gentle cooking lets the flour's starch swell and thicken the stock while cooking out the raw floury taste. Rushing over high heat can scorch the roux, leaving bitter flavor and dark specks.

Swap the onion

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (meat, veal, beef, carrot, celery, pepper):

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

Fit is the average pairing score against meat, veal, beef, carrot, celery, 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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