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Broth or Soup Stock

A clear beef stock made by simmering thin beef slices, bones, and soup greens with salt and water.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 6 ingredients
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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 ↓

Broth or Soup Stock

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Place the beef slices in a large saucepan.

  2. Add coarse sea salt and enough cold water to cover the meat.

  3. Add bones and soup greens.

Simmer and brown

  1. Slowly bring to a boil, then reduce heat and simmer.

  2. To brown the broth, caramelize sugar in a pan, then dilute it in cold water and add to the broth.

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

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

  2. Celery + carrottop 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. Beef + carrottop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together6,606 recipes

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

  5. Beef + celerytop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together4,370 recipes

    Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).

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

What each ingredient does

Beef
Provides meaty flavour and savory depth to the broth as it simmers.
Bones
Release gelatin and minerals during long simmering, adding body and richness to the stock.
Soup greens
Celery, carrots and parsley add aromatic sweetness and background flavour to the broth.
Sugar
Caramelized sugar gives the broth a deeper golden colour and slightly sweet, toasted flavour.

The step that matters

Slowly bring to a boil, then simmer. Starting in cold water and heating gently lets proteins and fats release slowly, keeping the broth clear. A rolling boil emulsifies fat and clouds the liquid.

Swap the parsley

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

  1. Parsleythe original
  2. Cinnamonfits about as well
  3. Marjoramfits about as well
  4. Cuminfits about as well

Fit is the average pairing score against beef, celery, carrot, sugar. 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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