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Soup

Vegetable Stock

A clear broth made by simmering beans, peas, onion, carrot, celery, herbs, spices, and mace in water.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 12 ingredients
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Vegetable Stock

Why it works: Carrot and parsley match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 8,053 recipes. Both carry 2,4-decadienal, which smells seaweed. The science ↓

Vegetable Stock

Ingredients

Directions

  1. Boil all the vegetables, spices, and herbs in 2 quarts of water for 3 to 4 hours.

  2. Skim the surface to remove impurities.

  3. Strain the stock and let it stand to settle.

  4. Pour off the clear liquid, leaving the sediment behind.

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

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

  2. Carrot + celerytop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together10,173 recipes

    Shared aroma: myristicin (spice, warm).

  3. Celery + parsleytop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together6,810 recipes

    Shared aroma: 4'-methylacetophenone (bitter almond).

  4. Parsley + peppertop 2% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together34,122 recipes

    Shared aroma: 4'-methylacetophenone (bitter almond).

  5. Beans + carrottop 4% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together1,443 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-isobutyl-3-methoxypyrazine (green bell pepper, earthy).

Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs

What each ingredient does

Haricot beans
Break down during long simmering to add body and a thicker texture to the stock.
Split peas
Soften during long simmering and release starch, adding body and thickness to the liquid.
Onion
Releases sugars and aromatic compounds that give the stock its savory, sweet base flavor.
Carrot
Adds natural sweetness and aroma as it cooks slowly in the water.

The step that matters

Skim the surface. Impurities and foam rise to the top during simmering. Removing them early keeps the stock clear and prevents off flavors from mixing back in.

Swap the peas

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (beans, onion, carrot, celery, parsley, pepper, clove):

  1. Chickpeafits better
  2. Lentilsfits better
  3. Black-eyed peafits better
  4. Peasthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against beans, onion, carrot, celery, parsley, pepper, clove. 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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