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 ↓
White Stock From Bones Uncooked
Ingredients
Directions
Prepare
Break up the bones and slice the vegetables.
Put bones and vegetables into a stock pot with the water.
Simmer and strain
Boil gently for 5 hours, adding salt and pepper to taste.
Strain the stock into a pan.
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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Thyme + marjoramtop 1% of all pairsSmell alikestrongCooked together2,225 recipes
Shared aroma: terpineol (pine, woody).
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Parsley + thymetop 1% of all pairsSmell alikestrongCooked together9,057 recipes
Shared aroma: cuminaldehyde (Spicy, cumin).
-
Parsley + marjoramtop 1% of all pairsSmell alikestrongCooked together1,979 recipes
Shared aroma: cuminaldehyde (Spicy, cumin).
-
Carrot + parsleytop 1% of all pairsSmell alikestrongCooked together8,053 recipes
Shared aroma: 2,4-decadienal (seaweed).
-
Carrot + celerytop 1% of all pairsSmell alikestrongCooked together10,173 recipes
Shared aroma: myristicin (spice, warm).
Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs
What each ingredient does
- Bones
- Release gelatin and savoury flavour into the water during long simmering.
- Water
- Acts as the solvent that extracts flavour and body from bones and vegetables.
- Carrots
- Add sweetness and aromatic depth to the stock.
- Onion
- Contributes savoury, aromatic flavour to the stock.
- Celery
- Adds a fresh, aromatic vegetal note to the stock.
The step that matters
Keep the simmer gentle. A gentle simmer extracts flavour and gelatin while keeping the stock clear. A hard boil emulsifies fat into the liquid and makes it cloudy.
Swap the onion
How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (ham, carrot, turnip, celery, parsley, thyme, marjoram):
- Parsnipfits better
- Leekfits better
- Shallotfits better
- Onionthe original
Fit is the average pairing score against ham, carrot, turnip, celery, parsley, 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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