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 for Gravies
Ingredients
Directions
Prepare
Break the bone of the shin in one or two places and remove the marrow.
If not using the marrow immediately, clarify and store it for later.
Combine 6 lbs of 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 large bunch of savory herbs, peppercorns, and mace during cooking.
Store
Store the stock in a cool place.
Boil the stock softly for 2–3 minutes every few 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.
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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 gelatin and meat fragments, giving the stock body and richness.
- Cold water
- Acts as the solvent that extracts flavour and gelatin from the bones and meat.
- Savoury herbs
- Add aromatic flavour to the stock during the long stewing.
- Peppercorns
- Add a mild, warm spiciness that rounds out the stock's flavour.
- Mace
- Adds a delicate, warm aroma to the stock.
The step that matters
Stew gently for 6 to 7 hours. Gentle heat slowly draws collagen from the bone and shin into gelatin without clouding the stock. Vigorous boiling emulsifies fat and fine particles into the liquid, making it cloudy and greasy.
“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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