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Stock, No. 1

A beef stock made with shin, ham, vegetables, spices, and simmered for six hours.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 14 ingredients
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Why it works: Clove and allspice match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 7,874 recipes. Both carry estragole, which smells anise, licorice. The science ↓

Stock, No. 1

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Heat an iron pot.

  2. Rub the bottom of the pot with garlic six times.

  3. Add the beef and ½ cup of water.

  4. Let it sit by the fire for 1 hour.

Simmer

  1. Add the ham, onions, carrots, celery, cloves, allspice, peppercorns, brown sugar, mustard, salt, black onion, and 6 quarts of water.

  2. Simmer for 6 hours. Skim frequently.

Strain and chill

  1. Strain through a fine sieve dipped in cold water into an uncovered earthen pan.

  2. When cold, remove the fat.

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. Clove + allspicetop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together7,874 recipes

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

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

    Shared aroma: myristicin (spice, warm).

  3. Carrot + clovetop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together5,873 recipes

    Shared aroma: cuminaldehyde (Spicy, cumin).

  4. Carrot + allspicetop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together1,021 recipes

    Shared aroma: beta-phellandrene (minty, terpene).

  5. Celery + allspicetop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together1,422 recipes

    Shared aroma: beta-phellandrene (minty, terpene).

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

What each ingredient does

Shin of beef
Provides meat and connective tissue that release gelatin and flavor into the stock during long simmering.
Lean ham
Adds savory, salty depth to the broth as it simmers.
Onions
Contribute sweetness and aromatic flavor as they cook down into the stock.
Carrots
Add natural sweetness and body to the stock's flavor.
Celery
Adds aromatic, savory flavor to the stock.
Peppercorns
Release pungent aroma and spice into the liquid during simmering.

The step that matters

Skim frequently during the simmer. Impurities and fat rise to the surface as the stock simmers. Removing them keeps the broth clear and clean-tasting instead of cloudy or greasy.

Swap the onion

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (beef, ham, carrot, celery, clove, allspice, sugar):

  1. Parsnipfits better
  2. Turnipfits better
  3. Mustardfits better
  4. Onionthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against beef, ham, carrot, celery, clove, allspice, sugar. 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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