Why it works: Beef and mace are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 25% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 2,969 recipes. Both carry alpha-pinene, which smells pine, turpentine. The science ↓
Shin of Beef Stock
Ingredients
Directions
Prepare
Break the bone of the shin of beef in one or two places and remove the marrow.
Clarify the marrow if not used immediately and store for future use.
Combine the shin of beef with 9 pints of cold water in a pot.
Make the stock
Stew gently for 6 to 7 hours, or longer until the meat is in fragments.
Add the coarse sea salt, savoury herbs, peppercorns, and mace during cooking.
Store
Keep the stock in a cool place.
Boil softly for 2-3 minutes every 2-3 days.
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.
-
Beef + macetop 25% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together2,969 recipes
Shared aroma: alpha-pinene (pine, turpentine).
Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs
What each ingredient does
- Shin of beef
- Breaks down into fragments over long stewing, releasing gelatin that gives the stock body.
- Cold water
- Acts as the solvent that slowly draws flavour and gelatin out of the bone and meat.
- Savoury herbs
- Add aromatic, herbal notes that infuse the stock during the long stew.
- Peppercorns
- Release warm, pungent aroma into the stock as it simmers.
- Mace
- Adds a warm, delicate spiced aroma to the stock.
The step that matters
Stew gently for 6 to 7 hours. Keeping the heat low and the liquid barely simmering lets collagen slowly convert to gelatin, giving body to the stock. A hard boil emulsifies fat into the liquid and makes it cloudy.
“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.
You might also like
Roast Beef211 recipes
Beef Loaf175 recipes
Corned Beef87 recipes
Beef Broth67 recipesThe free Flavor Lab newsletter: one surprising pairing a week and the molecular reason it works, in 60 seconds. No spam, unsubscribe anytime.
Prefer an account? Create a free account to save pairings and unlock the full chemistry.