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Mixed Stock for Soups

A beef stock made by simmering bones and vegetables for several hours, then strained and reheated.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 8 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 ↓

Mixed Stock for Soups

Ingredients

Directions

Make the stock

  1. In a covered kettle, combine beef, cracked bones, and water.

  2. Heat slowly and let it boil gently for 6 hours.

  3. Strain the stock and cover it until the next day.

  4. Before using, remove the fat and reheat the stock.

Add vegetables and finish

  1. Add salt, carrots, onions, turnip, and celery to the stock.

  2. Stew the vegetables in enough water to cover them until tender.

  3. Add the cooked vegetables and their water to the stock and boil slowly for 30 minutes.

  4. Strain the stock again before serving.

  5. For added flavor, include a bay leaf while reheating.

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

    Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).

  3. Turnip + celerytop 2% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together4,418 recipes

    Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).

  4. Onion + turniptop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together7,585 recipes

    Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).

  5. Carrot + oniontop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together21,601 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
Gives the stock its meaty body and deep savory flavor as it simmers.
Bones
Release gelatin and minerals during long simmering, adding richness and body to the stock.
Carrots
Add natural sweetness and aromatic depth to the stock.
Onions
Contribute sweetness and savory aroma as they cook down into the stock.
Celery
Adds aromatic, vegetal flavor that rounds out the stock.

The step that matters

Heat slowly and boil gently for 6 hours. A rolling boil makes the stock cloudy and greasy, while slow, gentle simmering keeps it clear and lets collagen from the bones dissolve into rich body.

Swap the onion

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

  1. Parsnipfits better
  2. Leekfits better
  3. Beetrootfits about as well
  4. Onionthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against beef, carrot, turnip, 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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