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Strong Broth for Soup

A robust broth made by simmering beef, veal, mutton, and vegetables for six hours.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 13 ingredients
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Why it works: Leek and turnip match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 1,046 recipes. Both carry coumarin, which smells sweet, hay. The science ↓

Strong Broth for Soup

Ingredients

Directions

Make the broth

  1. Place the beef, veal, and mutton in a large pot with 5 gallons of water.

  2. Bring the mixture to a boil and skim off any impurities.

  3. Add the onions, leeks, celery, carrots, turnips, sweet herbs, cloves, allspice, and salt, then skim again.

  4. Let it simmer gently for 6 hours.

Strain and store

  1. Strain the broth.

  2. Set the strained broth aside for later use.

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. Leek + turniptop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together1,046 recipes

    Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).

  2. Celery + carrottop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together10,173 recipes

    Shared aroma: myristicin (spice, warm).

  3. Carrot + turniptop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together8,002 recipes

    Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).

  4. Celery + turniptop 2% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together4,418 recipes

    Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).

  5. Leek + carrottop 3% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together1,310 recipes

    Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).

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

What each ingredient does

Beef
Releases gelatin and savory flavor into the water as it simmers.
Veal knuckle
Adds gelatin from bones and connective tissue, giving the broth body.
Mutton scrag
Contributes meaty, rich flavor and fat to the simmering liquid.
Onions
Add sweetness and depth as they soften and brown slightly in the broth.
Leeks
Contribute mild onion-like aroma and sweetness to the stock.
Celery
Adds vegetal aroma and savory background flavor to the broth.

The step that matters

Skimming the foam. Impurities and coagulated proteins rise to the surface as the liquid heats. Removing them early keeps the broth clear and prevents off flavors from mixing back in during the long simmer.

Swap the onion

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (beef, veal, mutton, leek, celery, carrot, turnip):

  1. Parsnipfits better
  2. Chivefits about as well
  3. Shallotfits about as well
  4. Onionthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against beef, veal, mutton, leek, celery, carrot, turnip. 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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