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 ↓
White Soup Stock
Ingredients
Directions
Prepare
Wipe the meat and cut it into small pieces.
Combine the meat with the cold water in a large pot.
Add the onion, carrot, celery, peppercorns, bay leaf, thyme, cloves, and salt.
Simmer and strain
Simmer for 5 hours.
Strain the stock and let it cool.
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.
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Carrot + celerytop 1% of all pairsSmell alikestrongCooked together10,173 recipes
Shared aroma: myristicin (spice, warm).
-
Thyme + clovetop 2% of all pairsSmell alikestrongCooked together4,108 recipes
Shared aroma: cuminaldehyde (Spicy, cumin).
-
Carrot + thymetop 3% of all pairsSmell alikestrongCooked together4,563 recipes
Shared aroma: cuminaldehyde (Spicy, cumin).
-
Celery + thymetop 3% of all pairsSmell alikestrongCooked together3,193 recipes
Shared aroma: beta-phellandrene (minty, terpene).
-
Carrot + clovetop 5% of all pairsSmell alikestrongCooked together5,873 recipes
Shared aroma: cuminaldehyde (Spicy, cumin).
Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs
What each ingredient does
- Knuckle of veal
- Collagen from the bones and connective tissue gives the stock body and a silky mouthfeel.
- Lean beef
- Adds meaty, savory flavor to the stock during the long simmer.
- Onion
- Contributes sweetness and savory depth as it softens and releases its flavor into the liquid.
The step that matters
Keep the simmer gentle. A rolling boil emulsifies fat and cloudies the stock, while a gentle simmer keeps it clear and lets collagen dissolve slowly for better body.
Swap the clove
How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (veal, beef, onion, carrot, celery, thyme):
- Parsleyfits better
- Marjoramfits better
- Tarragonfits better
- Clovethe original
Fit is the average pairing score against veal, beef, onion, carrot, celery, thyme. 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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