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Rich Strong Stock

A hearty stock made from beef, veal, ham, poultry trimmings, vegetables, herbs, and spices, simmered for six hours.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 18 ingredients
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Why it works: Carrot and celery match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 10,173 recipes. Both carry myristicin, which smells spice, warm. The science ↓

Rich Strong Stock

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the meat

  1. Melt the butter in a clean stewpan.

  2. Add the ham cut into thin slices, trimming off any rusty fat.

  3. Cut the beef and veal into 3-inch pieces and add them to the pan.

  4. Cook on the stove, stirring frequently until the meat is browned.

Make the stock

  1. Add the beef and veal bones, poultry trimmings, and pour in the cold water.

  2. Skim the surface and occasionally add cold water to stop boiling until clear.

  3. Add the remaining ingredients and simmer slowly for 6 hours.

  4. Strain through a fine sieve or cloth and the stock will be ready for use the next day.

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. Carrot + celerytop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together10,173 recipes

    Shared aroma: myristicin (spice, warm).

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

    Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).

  3. Turnip + celerytop 2% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together4,418 recipes

    Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).

  4. Onion + turniptop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together7,585 recipes

    Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).

  5. Onion + carrottop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together21,601 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).

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

What each ingredient does

Beef shin
Releases gelatin and flavour into the stock as it simmers for hours.
Veal knuckle
Adds gelatin from bone and connective tissue, giving the stock body.
Lean ham
Contributes savoury, salty flavour that deepens the stock.
Onions
Provide sweetness and aromatic depth as they cook down.
Carrots
Add natural sweetness and a rounded, aromatic background flavour.
Butter
Carries flavour from the vegetables and meat and aids browning.

The step that matters

Skimming and adding cold water. Skimming removes coagulated proteins and fat that would cloud the stock. Adding cold water keeps it from boiling hard, which would emulsify fat and make it murky.

Swap the turnip

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (beef, veal, ham, butter, onion, carrot, celery):

  1. Leekfits about as well
  2. Potatofits about as well
  3. Turnipthe original
  4. Tomatofits about as well

Fit is the average pairing score against beef, veal, ham, butter, onion, carrot, 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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