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Stock for Clear Soup

A clear veal stock made by simmering veal, bacon, butter, onions, and seasonings in water.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 7 ingredients
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Why it works: Pepper and onion are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 11% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 68,474 recipes. Both carry 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine, which smells earthy, pea. The science ↓

Stock for Clear Soup

Ingredients

Directions

  1. Combine veal, butter, bacon, salt, pepper, and water in an iron pot or stewpan.

  2. Heat on the fire.

  3. When boiling, stir for about 10 minutes until it forms a thick gravy.

  4. Add 5 pints of hot or cold water.

  5. Bring to a boil.

  6. Let it simmer gently for 45 minutes.

  7. Skim as needed.

  8. Pass the stock through a sieve to achieve a clear liquid.

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. Pepper + oniontop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together68,474 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).

  2. Butter + oniontop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together42,912 recipes

    Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).

  3. Veal + oniontop 17% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together6,841 recipes

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

  4. Veal + peppertop 19% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together10,049 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).

  5. Butter + peppertop 21% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together85,593 recipes

    Shared aroma: trans-2-nonenal (cardboard, fatty).

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

What each ingredient does

Veal knuckle or scrag
Provides the bones and connective tissue that give the stock its body and flavour.
Butter or dripping
Carries fat that helps flavour the veal as it browns and thickens the gravy.
Bacon
Adds savoury, smoky fat that deepens the overall flavour of the stock.
Onions
Add sweetness and aromatic depth as they cook down into the stock.

The step that matters

Stirring until a thick gravy forms. Stirring the meat over heat until it browns and sticks lightly to the pot builds the gravy base that gives the stock its colour and depth. Stirring too little can leave the flavour flat, while letting it scorch will make the stock bitter.

Swap the onion

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (veal, butter, pepper):

  1. Capsicumfits better
  2. Carrotfits about as well
  3. Potatofits about as well
  4. Onionthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against veal, butter, pepper. 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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