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Brown Soup Stock

A beef stock made by simmering shin of beef with vegetables and seasonings for several hours.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 11 ingredients
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Brown Soup Stock

Why it works: Marjoram and thyme match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 2,225 recipes. Both carry terpineol, which smells pine, woody. The science ↓

Brown Soup Stock

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Wipe the beef and cut it into 1-inch cubes.

  2. Brown one-third of the meat in a hot frying pan with marrow from a marrow bone.

Make the stock

  1. In a soup kettle, combine the remaining two-thirds of the meat with the bone and fat, and add cold water.

  2. Let the mixture stand for 30 minutes.

  3. Place the kettle on the back of the range, add the browned meat, and heat gradually to boiling point.

  4. Remove any scum that rises to the surface.

  5. Cover and cook slowly for 6 hours, keeping the temperature below boiling point.

  6. Add the vegetables and seasonings, and cook for an additional 1.5 hours.

Finish

  1. Strain the stock and cool it as quickly as possible.

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. Marjoram + thymetop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together2,225 recipes

    Shared aroma: terpineol (pine, woody).

  2. Parsley + thymetop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together9,057 recipes

    Shared aroma: cuminaldehyde (Spicy, cumin).

  3. Marjoram + parsleytop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together1,979 recipes

    Shared aroma: cuminaldehyde (Spicy, cumin).

  4. Parsley + carrottop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together8,053 recipes

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

  5. Carrot + turniptop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together8,002 recipes

    Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).

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

What each ingredient does

Shin of beef
Provides meat flavour and collagen that gives the stock body as it simmers.
Marrow bone (in the method)
Adds rich fat and savoury flavour to the stock during long simmering.
Onion
Adds sweetness and aromatic depth as it cooks down into the stock.
Carrot
Contributes gentle sweetness and aroma to the background of the stock.

The step that matters

Keep the stock below boiling point during the long cook. At a rolling boil, fat and proteins emulsify into the liquid, leaving the stock cloudy and greasy. A gentle simmer keeps it clear and clean-tasting.

Swap the onion

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

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

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