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A clear broth made by simmering beef, veal, carrots, onions, and herbs.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 10 ingredients
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Stock

Why it works: Parsley and thyme match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 9,057 recipes. Both carry cuminaldehyde, which smells Spicy, cumin. The science ↓

Stock

Ingredients

Directions

  1. In a stewpan, combine beef and veal with sliced carrots, parsley, thyme, bay leaf, chives, onions, and cloves.

  2. Moisten with broth and place on high heat until the broth reduces.

  3. Add more broth and let it simmer on low heat for 3 hours.

  4. Skim the surface and strain into a pan.

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

    Shared aroma: cuminaldehyde (Spicy, cumin).

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

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

  3. Thyme + clovetop 2% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together4,108 recipes

    Shared aroma: cuminaldehyde (Spicy, cumin).

  4. Carrot + thymetop 3% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together4,563 recipes

    Shared aroma: cuminaldehyde (Spicy, cumin).

  5. Parsley + chivetop 3% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together2,150 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
Provides the main meaty flavor and savory body of the stock as it simmers.
Veal knuckle
Adds gelatin from bones and connective tissue, giving the stock body and a silky mouthfeel.
Onions
Contribute sweetness and depth of flavor as they cook down into the liquid.
Carrots
Add natural sweetness and aromatic flavor to the stock.

The step that matters

Simmering on low heat. Keeping the liquid at a gentle simmer rather than a rolling boil lets collagen and flavor extract slowly while keeping the stock clear. Boiling vigorously emulsifies fat into the liquid and makes it cloudy.

Swap the clove

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (beef, veal, carrot, parsley, thyme, chive, onion):

  1. Marjoramfits better
  2. Tarragonfits better
  3. Celeryfits better
  4. Clovethe original

Fit is the average pairing score against beef, veal, carrot, parsley, thyme, chive, onion. 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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