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Stocks for All Kinds of Soups

A rich stock made from beef shin, veal knuckle, ham, poultry trimmings, vegetables, herbs, spices, and water.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 18 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 ↓

Stocks for All Kinds of Soups

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Line a clean stewpan with thin slices of ham, trimming off any rusty fat.

  2. Add the shin of beef and knuckle of veal.

  3. Include poultry trimmings, butter, onions, carrots, turnips, celery, mushrooms, and tomato.

  4. Add the savory herbs, salt, sugar, peppercorns, cloves, and mace.

Simmer and strain

  1. Pour in 4 quarts of water and bring to a boil.

  2. Simmer for several hours, skimming off any impurities.

  3. Strain the stock and use as needed.

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

    Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).

  3. Turnip + celerytop 2% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together4,418 recipes

    Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).

  4. Onion + turniptop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together7,585 recipes

    Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).

  5. Onion + carrottop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together21,601 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
Releases gelatin and meaty flavor into the liquid during long simmering.
Knuckle of veal
Adds gelatin from connective tissue, giving the stock body and a silky texture.
Ham
Contributes savory, salty depth to the stock's overall flavor.
Onions
Add sweetness and aroma as they soften and caramelize slightly in the pot.
Carrots
Contribute natural sweetness and rounded background flavor.

The step that matters

Skimming off impurities during the simmer. Proteins and fats that rise to the surface can cloud the stock and make it greasy if not removed. Keeping the liquid at a gentle simmer rather than a hard boil lets the stock stay clear.

Swap the turnip

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

  1. Leekfits about as well
  2. Potatofits about as well
  3. Turnipthe original
  4. Tomatofits about as well

Fit is the average pairing score against beef, veal, ham, butter, onion, carrot, 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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