Why it works: Parsley and thyme match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 9,057 recipes. Both carry cuminaldehyde, which smells Spicy, cumin. The science ↓
Beef Stock
Ingredients
Directions
Prepare the stock
Place the beef in a stewpan and cover with water.
Add parsley, thyme, carrot, onion, turnip, celery, and salt.
Bring to a boil and skim off any foam.
Simmer and strain
Cook until the meat is tender.
Skim off the fat and strain the stock through a fine sieve.
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.
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Parsley + thymetop 1% of all pairsSmell alikestrongCooked together9,057 recipes
Shared aroma: cuminaldehyde (Spicy, cumin).
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Parsley + carrottop 1% of all pairsSmell alikestrongCooked together8,053 recipes
Shared aroma: 2,4-decadienal (seaweed).
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Carrot + celerytop 1% of all pairsSmell alikestrongCooked together10,173 recipes
Shared aroma: myristicin (spice, warm).
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Carrot + turniptop 1% of all pairsSmell alikestrongCooked together8,002 recipes
Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).
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Parsley + celerytop 1% of all pairsSmell alikestrongCooked together6,810 recipes
Shared aroma: 4'-methylacetophenone (bitter almond).
Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs
What each ingredient does
- Lean beef
- Provides the meat flavor and gelatin that give the stock body as it cooks.
- Onion
- Adds aromatic sweetness and depth of flavor to the stock.
- Carrot
- Contributes mild sweetness and aromatic body to the stock.
- Celery
- Adds savory, aromatic flavor that rounds out the stock.
The step that matters
Skim off any foam after boiling. Foam carries impurities and proteins from the meat that can cloud the stock and taint its flavor if left to recombine during simmering.
Swap the onion
How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (beef, parsley, thyme, carrot, turnip, celery):
- Parsnipfits better
- Leekfits better
- Shallotfits better
- Onionthe original
Fit is the average pairing score against beef, parsley, thyme, 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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