Why it works: Meat and sugar are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 34% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 2,866 recipes. Both carry guaiacol, which smells smoky, sweet. The science ↓
The Stock Pot
Ingredients
Directions
Prepare
Trim and wipe fresh meat and bones with a warm damp cloth.
Place the meat and bones in a pot and cover with water.
Simmer and strain
Bring to a boil, then reduce heat and simmer for 5 to 6 hours.
For a stronger stock, leave the lid off for the last hour to allow evaporation.
Strain the stock through a colander or fine sieve.
Chill and skim
Let the stock cool and refrigerate overnight to allow fat to solidify.
Remove the fat with a spoon before using.
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.
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Meat + sugartop 34% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together2,866 recipes
Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).
Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs
What each ingredient does
- Fresh meat and bones
- Release gelatin, collagen and flavour into the water during long simmering.
The step that matters
Keeping the simmer gentle. A rolling boil emulsifies fat into the liquid and makes the stock cloudy and greasy, so the pot should only barely simmer for the full cooking time.
“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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