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A savory stock made with beef or veal, bones, bacon or ham, vegetables, herbs, and water, simmered for several hours.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 13 ingredients
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Stock

Why it works: Turnip and carrot match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 8,002 recipes. Both carry coumarin, which smells sweet, hay. The science ↓

Stock

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Cut the meat and bacon or ham into pieces about 3 inches square.

  2. Break the bones into small pieces.

  3. Rub the butter on the bottom of a stewpan.

Simmer the stock

  1. Add the meat, bacon, bones, onions, turnip, carrots, celery, salt, pepper, mace, and herbs to the stewpan.

  2. Pour in the cold water.

  3. Bring to a boil, then reduce heat and simmer for several hours.

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

    Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).

  2. Clove + carrottop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together5,873 recipes

    Shared aroma: cuminaldehyde (Spicy, cumin).

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

    Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).

  4. Clove + turniptop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together2,233 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 or knuckle of veal
Breaks down slowly during simmering, releasing gelatin and flavour into the liquid for body.
Bones
Release gelatin and minerals during long simmering, giving the stock body and depth.
Lean bacon or ham
Adds salty, savoury, smoky flavour to the broth.
Onions
Add sweetness and savoury depth as they soften and colour in the liquid.
Carrots
Add gentle sweetness and aromatic flavour to the broth.

The step that matters

Simmering after the boil. Once the stock reaches a boil, it should be reduced to a gentle simmer. A hard boil emulsifies fat and clouds the liquid, while slow simmering keeps it clear and extracts flavour gradually.

Swap the clove

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

  1. Celeryfits better
  2. Parsleyfits better
  3. Thymefits better
  4. Clovethe original

Fit is the average pairing score against beef, meat, ham, butter, onion, turnip, carrot. 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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