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Soup

Good Brown Stock

A hearty beef stock made by simmering bones and aromatics for hours.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 10 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 ↓

Good Brown Stock

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Cut the meat into 1‑inch squares and break up the bones, removing the marrow.

Make the stock

  1. Cover the meat and bones with water in a large pot and bring gently to a boil.

  2. Skim the surface thoroughly, then add all the remaining ingredients.

  3. Simmer slowly for 4 hours.

Strain and skim

  1. Pour the stock through a fine sieve and let it cool.

  2. Once cool, remove the fat from the surface.

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. Clove + carrottop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together5,873 recipes

    Shared aroma: cuminaldehyde (Spicy, cumin).

  3. Carrot + oniontop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together21,601 recipes

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

  4. Clove + celerytop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together4,668 recipes

    Shared aroma: gamma-decalactone (peach, creamy).

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

Shin of beef
Collagen in the connective tissue breaks down into gelatin, giving the stock body and mouthfeel.
Poultry or game bones
Release gelatin and minerals into the liquid, adding depth and body to the stock.
Onions, browned
Browning adds caramelized, deeper color and aroma to the finished stock.
Carrot
Adds natural sweetness and aromatic flavor to the stock's base.
Celery
Contributes aromatic, savory flavor compounds that round out the stock.

The step that matters

Skim the surface thoroughly before adding the remaining ingredients. Coagulated proteins and impurities rise to the surface as the liquid heats. Removing them early keeps the stock clear and free of off-flavors.

Swap the clove

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

  1. Parsleyfits better
  2. Cuminfits better
  3. Thymefits better
  4. Clovethe original

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