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Vegetable Stock

A clear broth made by simmering cabbage, onions, carrots, turnip, herbs, cloves, peppercorns, and butter in water.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 10 ingredients
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Vegetable Stock

Why it works: Thyme and marjoram match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 2,225 recipes. Both carry terpineol, which smells pine, woody. The science ↓

Vegetable Stock

about 2 quarts and half a pint

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the vegetables

  1. Wash the cabbage in cold water and cut it into quarters.

  2. Wash, scrape, and cut the carrots into quarters.

  3. Peel the turnip and cut it into quarters.

  4. Wash the onions, leaving the skins on.

Make the stock

  1. Place all the vegetables in a saucepan with the butter.

  2. Add the bunch of herbs, cloves, and peppercorns.

  3. Heat the saucepan and let the vegetables sweat in the butter for 10 minutes, stirring to prevent burning.

  4. Pour in the cold water and add salt to taste.

  5. Once the water boils, reduce the heat and let it simmer gently for 2 hours, skimming occasionally.

  6. Strain the stock into a basin; it will yield about 2 quarts and half a pint.

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.

Photo for illustrative purposes only · Contact us to use it

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 + marjoramtop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together2,225 recipes

    Shared aroma: terpineol (pine, woody).

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

    Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).

  3. Carrot + marjoramtop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together687 recipes

    Shared aroma: cuminaldehyde (Spicy, cumin).

  4. Cabbage + turniptop 2% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together897 recipes

    Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).

  5. Clove + marjoramtop 2% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together1,075 recipes

    Shared aroma: cuminaldehyde (Spicy, cumin).

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

What each ingredient does

Cabbage
Contributes sweet, savoury vegetable flavour to the broth as it simmers.
Onions
Add sweetness and depth of flavour to the stock when sweated and simmered.
Carrots
Add natural sweetness and body to the finished stock.
Turnip
Adds a mild, slightly peppery sweetness to the stock.
Butter
Carries flavour from the vegetables and adds richness when the vegetables sweat.

The step that matters

Sweating the vegetables in butter. Stirring over gentle heat for 10 minutes softens the vegetables and draws out their flavour without browning. Too much heat can scorch the butter and vegetables, giving the stock a bitter, burnt taste.

Swap the cabbage

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (onion, carrot, turnip, butter, clove, thyme, marjoram):

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

Fit is the average pairing score against onion, carrot, turnip, butter, clove, thyme, marjoram. 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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