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Reef and Veal Stock for Fricassees, Soups, &C.

A stock made from beef and veal bones simmered with vegetables, herbs, and salt.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 6 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 ↓

Reef and Veal Stock for Fricassees, Soups, &C.

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Place beef and veal bones in a large pot.

  2. Add enough water to cover the bones.

  3. Chop vegetables and add them to the pot.

  4. Add herbs and salt to taste.

Simmer and store

  1. Bring to a boil, then reduce heat and simmer for several hours.

  2. Strain the stock and store it for future 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. Carrot + celerytop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together10,173 recipes

    Shared aroma: myristicin (spice, warm).

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

    Shared aroma: cuminaldehyde (Spicy, cumin).

  3. Celery + thymetop 3% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together3,193 recipes

    Shared aroma: beta-phellandrene (minty, terpene).

  4. Carrot + oniontop 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

Beef bones
Release gelatin and savory flavor into the water during long simmering, giving body to the stock.
Veal bones
Add gelatin and a delicate savory flavor, contributing body to the finished stock.
Vegetables
Carrots, onions and celery add sweetness and aromatic depth to the stock.
Herbs
Thyme and bay leaf add aroma that infuses the liquid during simmering.

The step that matters

Bring to a boil, then reduce heat and simmer. Keeping the liquid at a gentle simmer rather than a rolling boil extracts flavor and gelatin slowly while keeping the stock clear. Boiling vigorously emulsifies fat and fine particles into the liquid, making it cloudy.

Swap the thyme

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

  1. Parsleyfits better
  2. Thymethe original
  3. Marjoramfits about as well
  4. Cuminfits about as well

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