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Strong Broth for Soup and Gravy

A robust broth made from beef, veal, and mutton, simmered with vegetables and herbs, used for soup and gravy.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 25 ingredients
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Why it works: Leek and turnip match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 1,046 recipes. Both carry coumarin, which smells sweet, hay. The science ↓

Strong Broth for Soup and Gravy

Ingredients

Directions

Make the broth

  1. Combine the shin of beef, knuckle of veal, and scrag of mutton with 5 gallons of water in a large pot.

  2. Bring the mixture to a boil and skim off any impurities.

  3. Season with onions, leeks, celery, carrots, turnips, sweet herbs, cloves, allspice, and salt, then skim again.

  4. Let it simmer gently for 6 hours.

  5. Strain the broth and set aside for later use.

Build the flavoured base

  1. Place a slice of bacon in a stewpan and layer the thinly sliced beef on top of the bacon.

  2. Add the sliced carrot, onion, crust of bread, sweet herbs, mace, cloves, nutmeg, whole pepper, and anchovy.

  3. Cover the stewpan and cook on low heat for 5-6 minutes.

  4. Pour in 1 quart of the prepared broth and cover tightly.

  5. Let it simmer until reduced by half.

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. Leek + turniptop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together1,046 recipes

    Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).

  2. Celery + carrottop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together10,173 recipes

    Shared aroma: myristicin (spice, warm).

  3. Carrot + turniptop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together8,002 recipes

    Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).

  4. Celery + turniptop 2% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together4,418 recipes

    Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).

  5. Leek + carrottop 3% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together1,310 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 shin
Gives the broth its deep, meaty flavour and body as it simmers.
Veal knuckle
Adds gelatine and richness, giving the finished broth more body.
Mutton scrag
Contributes savoury, rich meat flavour to the long-simmered stock.
Onions
Add sweetness and savoury depth as they cook down into the broth.
Bacon
Adds fat and smoky, salty flavour to the flavoured base.

The step that matters

Skimming the broth. Removing the foam and impurities that rise early keeps the broth clear and clean-tasting. Skimming again after seasoning removes fat and particles released as it simmers.

Swap the onion

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

  1. Parsnipfits better
  2. Chivefits about as well
  3. Shallotfits about as well
  4. Onionthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against beef, veal, mutton, leek, celery, carrot, turnip. 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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