Name: Stock for Gravy or Soup
Ingredients: 1 knuckle of veal, cut into slices; 1 pound lean beef, sliced; 1 pound lean ham, sliced; 3 carrots, chopped; 2 onions, chopped; 2 turnips, chopped; 2 heads of celery, chopped; 2 quarts water

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 ↓

Stock for Gravy or Soup

Ingredients

Directions

Combine veal, beef, ham, carrots, onions, turnips, celery, and water in a saucepan.
Cook over medium heat until all ingredients are tender, but do not let them brown.

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.

Carrot + celerytop 1% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together10,173 recipes

Shared aroma: myristicin (spice, warm).
Carrot + turniptop 1% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together8,002 recipes

Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).
Turnip + celerytop 2% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together4,418 recipes

Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).
Onion + turniptop 5% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together7,585 recipes

Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).
Carrot + oniontop 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

Veal knuckle: Releases gelatin and savory flavor into the liquid, giving the stock body.
Lean beef: Adds meaty depth of flavor to the stock.
Lean ham: Contributes salty, savory flavor to the stock.
Onions: Add sweetness and aromatic depth as they soften in the liquid.
Carrots: Add natural sweetness and color to the stock.

The step that matters

Cook over medium heat without browning. Keeping the heat moderate and the ingredients from browning keeps the stock pale and clean-tasting. Browning would add roasted, heavier flavors and a darker color, changing the stock's intended character.

Swap the onion

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

Leekfits better
Parsnipfits better
Onionthe original
Okrafits about as well

Fit is the average pairing score against veal, beef, ham, carrot, turnip, 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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Stock for Gravy or Soup