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Bone Stock or Gravy

A savory liquid made by simmering bones, onion, carrot, salt, and sugar in water for several hours.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 6 ingredients
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Why it works: Clove and carrot match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 5% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 5,873 recipes. Both carry cuminaldehyde, which smells Spicy, cumin. The science ↓

Bone Stock or Gravy

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Chop the bones slightly (if uncooked, wash with warm water).

  2. Place the bones, onion, carrot, sugar, and salt in a large saucepan.

  3. Cover with cold water.

Simmer and strain

  1. Simmer for 5 to 6 hours, removing the scum as it rises.

  2. When the bones look dry and full of holes, strain the stock into a basin.

  3. When cold, remove all 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 + carrottop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together5,873 recipes

    Shared aroma: cuminaldehyde (Spicy, cumin).

  2. Onion + carrottop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together21,601 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).

  3. Onion + clovetop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together16,901 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-nonanone (fruity, floral).

  4. Clove + sugartop 26% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together17,182 recipes

    Shared aroma: 1-penten-3-one (fish, pungent).

  5. Carrot + sugartop 28% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together4,211 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).

Clove and sugar barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 17,182 recipes: they work on texture and structure more than aroma.

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

What each ingredient does

Bones
Release gelatin and flavour into the water as they simmer, giving the stock body.
Onion
Adds savoury, aromatic flavour to the stock as it simmers.
Carrot
Adds sweetness and aromatic depth to the stock.

The step that matters

Removing the scum as it rises. Scum is coagulated proteins and impurities that can cloud the stock and taste bitter if left to recirculate. Skimming during the long simmer keeps the stock clear and clean-flavoured.

Swap the onion

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

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

Fit is the average pairing score against clove, carrot, 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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