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Mutton-stock for Soups

A stock made from beef, mutton, and vegetables, simmered for about six hours.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 12 ingredients
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Why it works: Thyme and parsley match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 9,057 recipes. Both carry cuminaldehyde, which smells Spicy, cumin. The science ↓

Mutton-stock for Soups

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Combine equal parts of beef and mutton with a small portion of ham or lean bacon.

  2. Add the necks of fowls, bones of an undressed calf's head, or any uncooked joint if desired.

  3. Pour 1 to 1½ gallons of cold water for each 8 lbs of meat.

Simmer

  1. Skim the liquid as it begins to boil.

  2. Add salt, celery, onions, turnips, carrots, herbs, peppercorns, cloves, and mace.

  3. Boil gently for about 6 hours.

Strain and finish

  1. Strain the stock.

  2. Let it cool, ensuring to remove all fat before serving.

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. Thyme + parsleytop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together9,057 recipes

    Shared aroma: cuminaldehyde (Spicy, cumin).

  2. Carrot + parsleytop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together8,053 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2,4-decadienal (seaweed).

  3. Celery + carrottop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together10,173 recipes

    Shared aroma: myristicin (spice, warm).

  4. Turnip + carrottop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together8,002 recipes

    Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).

  5. Celery + parsleytop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together6,810 recipes

    Shared aroma: 4'-methylacetophenone (bitter almond).

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

What each ingredient does

Beef
Provides rich meat flavor and gelatin from its connective tissue as it simmers.
Mutton
Adds deep, savoury meat flavor to the stock.
Celery
Contributes aromatic, savoury depth to the broth.
Onions
Add sweetness and savoury depth as they cook down into the liquid.

The step that matters

Skim the liquid as it begins to boil. Impurities and fat rise to the surface as the liquid heats. Skimming them early keeps the stock clear and clean-tasting rather than cloudy or greasy.

Swap the onion

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (beef, mutton, celery, turnip, carrot, thyme, parsley):

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

Fit is the average pairing score against beef, mutton, celery, turnip, carrot, thyme, parsley. 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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