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Mutton-stock for Soups

A savory stock made from beef, mutton, vegetables, and spices, simmered for hours.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 12 ingredients
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Why it works: Thyme and parsley 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 ↓

Mutton-stock for Soups

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Combine equal parts beef and mutton with a small portion of ham or lean bacon.

  2. Add necks of fowl or bones from an undressed calf's head for extra flavor.

  3. Pour 1 to 1½ gallons of cold water for each pound of meat.

Make the stock

  1. Bring the mixture to a boil.

  2. Add 1½ oz of salt, celery, onions, turnips, carrots, herbs, peppercorns, cloves, and mace.

  3. Reduce the heat.

  4. Simmer gently for about 6 hours.

  5. Strain the stock.

  6. Let it cool, removing all fat before serving.

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. Thyme + parsleytop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together9,057 recipes

    Shared aroma: cuminaldehyde (Spicy, cumin).

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

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

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

    Shared aroma: myristicin (spice, warm).

  4. Turnip + carrottop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together8,002 recipes

    Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).

  5. Celery + parsleytop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked 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

Beef
Provides rich meaty flavor and body to the stock as it simmers.
Mutton
Adds deep meaty flavor and gelatin-rich body to the stock.
Celery
Adds aromatic, savory flavor that builds the stock's base taste.
Onions
Contribute sweetness and savory depth as they cook down into the broth.

The step that matters

Let it cool, removing all fat before serving.. Fat rises and sets on top as the stock cools, so chilling lets you lift it off cleanly. Leaving fat in gives a greasy mouthfeel and cloudy appearance.

Swap the onion

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

  1. Leekfits better
  2. Parsnipfits better
  3. Shallotfits better
  4. Onionthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against beef, mutton, celery, turnip, carrot, thyme, parsley. 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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