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Vegetable Stock

A clear broth made by simmering carrots, onions, celery, parsley, thyme, marjoram, garlic, beef suet, and spices in water.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 13 ingredients
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Vegetable Stock

Why it works: Thyme and marjoram match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 2,225 recipes. Both carry terpineol, which smells pine, woody. The science ↓

Vegetable Stock

Ingredients

Directions

Make the stock

  1. In a stew-pan, combine carrots, onions, celery, parsley, thyme, marjoram, garlic, and beef suet.

  2. Fry the mixture until lightly colored.

  3. Add 5 quarts of water and bring to a boil, skimming off any foam.

  4. Stir in salt, pepper, cloves, allspice, and green peas.

  5. Bring to a boil again, then reduce heat and simmer for 3 hours.

Strain and store

  1. Strain the broth into a basin, remove the fat, 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.

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. Thyme + marjoramtop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together2,225 recipes

    Shared aroma: terpineol (pine, woody).

  2. Parsley + thymetop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together9,057 recipes

    Shared aroma: cuminaldehyde (Spicy, cumin).

  3. Parsley + marjoramtop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together1,979 recipes

    Shared aroma: cuminaldehyde (Spicy, cumin).

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

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

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

Carrots
Add sweetness and body, building the base flavor of the broth.
Onions
Contribute sweetness and savory depth when fried and simmered.
Beef suet
Adds fat that carries aroma and gives the frying step its color and flavor.
Celery
Adds aromatic, savory flavor to the broth.
Green peas
Add vegetal sweetness and some body to the simmering liquid.

The step that matters

Fry the mixture until lightly colored. Frying until lightly colored browns the vegetables and fat, building savory flavor through Maillard browning. Pale frying yields a flatter broth, while over-browning can make it bitter.

Swap the onion

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (carrot, celery, parsley, thyme, marjoram, clove, garlic):

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

Fit is the average pairing score against carrot, celery, parsley, thyme, marjoram, clove, garlic. 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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