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Clarification of Stock

A clarified beef and veal stock made by simmering minced meat, egg whites, and eggshell in cold stock, then skimming fat and straining.

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 ↓

Clarification of Stock

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Combine minced beef, veal, egg whites, eggshell, and cold stock in a large copper stew-pan.

  2. Beat the mixture well with a whisk.

Make the clarifying raft

  1. Add the stock and bring to just below boiling, stirring continuously.

  2. Maintain this temperature for at least 30 minutes, stirring often.

Finish

  1. Skim off the fat, season with salt, pepper, and a little sugar.

  2. Strain through a wet cloth to clarify.

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. Carrot + leektop 3% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together1,310 recipes

    Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).

  3. Celery + leektop 4% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together1,093 recipes

    Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).

  4. Onion + leektop 4% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together1,326 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl butyrate (apple, fruity).

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

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

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

What each ingredient does

Lean beef
Forms a meaty raft that traps fine particles and impurities as the stock heats.
Veal
Adds body and helps build the raft that collects cloudy particles.
Egg whites
Coagulate as they heat, trapping particles into a raft that clarifies the liquid.
Eggshell
Adds fine particles that help bind impurities into the raft.

The step that matters

Keep the stock just below boiling. Vigorous boiling breaks up the forming raft and sends trapped particles back into the liquid, leaving the stock cloudy. Gentle, steady heat lets the raft hold impurities so the stock can be strained clear.

Swap the onion

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

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

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