Skip to main content
Main

Rich Stock

A rich beef stock made by simmering beef, water, egg whites, and optional sugar.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 4 ingredients
Jump to recipe ↓

Why it works: Egg and sugar are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 21% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 122,807 recipes. Both carry 2-nonenal, which smells fatty, green. The science ↓

Rich Stock

Ingredients

Directions

  1. In a pot, combine the beef and water.

  2. Bring to a boil, then reduce heat and simmer for at least one hour.

  3. Whisk the egg whites until frothy and add them to the stock.

  4. Simmer for 20 minutes, then strain the stock through a cloth.

  5. If desired, add a lump of sugar before the second straining for brightness.

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. Egg + sugartop 21% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together122,807 recipes

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

  2. Beef + eggtop 31% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together8,305 recipes

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

  3. Beef + sugartop 37% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together5,435 recipes

    Shared aroma: beta-damascenone (apple, rose).

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

What each ingredient does

Beef
Releases flavor and gelatin into the water as it simmers, giving the stock body.
Egg whites
Coagulate as they heat, trapping fine particles so the stock clears when strained.

The step that matters

Adding the egg whites. Whisk them only until frothy and add them to the stock before simmering. The proteins set as they heat and collect cloudy particles, which is what clarifies the stock. Stirring them in too early or boiling hard can break up the raft and leave the stock murky.

“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.

You might also like

Roast BeefRoast Beef211 recipesBeef LoafBeef Loaf175 recipesCorned BeefCorned Beef87 recipesBeef BrothBeef Broth67 recipes