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White Stock

A clear broth made by simmering beef shin, veal leg, onion, turnip, carrot, herbs, and salt in cold water.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 8 ingredients
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Why it works: Turnip and carrot match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 8,002 recipes. Both carry coumarin, which smells sweet, hay. The science ↓

White Stock

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Cut the meat and chop the bones into small pieces.

  2. Scrape the carrot, peel the onion and turnip, and tie up the herbs.

Make the stock

  1. Put the meat, bones, and salt into a large saucepan and cover with cold water.

  2. Bring to a boil, skim well, then add the vegetables and herbs.

  3. Simmer for four hours to extract gelatin from the meat and bones.

Strain and chill

  1. Strain into a basin, and remove the fat when cold.

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

    Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).

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

    Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).

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

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

  4. Beef + oniontop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together17,092 recipes

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

  5. Beef + carrottop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together6,606 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 savory flavor into the stock during long simmering.
Veal leg
Adds gelatin from its connective tissue, giving the stock body when chilled.
Bones (in the method)
Release gelatin and minerals that give the stock body and depth.
Onion
Contributes sweetness and aromatic flavor to the simmering liquid.
Carrot
Adds subtle sweetness and aromatic flavor to the stock.

The step that matters

Skim well after the boil. Bringing to a boil releases proteins and fats as scum that cloud the stock. Skimming thoroughly before adding vegetables and simmering keeps the stock clear and clean-tasting.

Swap the turnip

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

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

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