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Soup Stock

A stock made by simmering a beef shank bone with water and seasonings.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 10 ingredients
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Soup Stock

Why it works: Horse and radish work together. They rank in the top 4% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 529 recipes. Both carry 2-methylbutyraldehyde, which smells malty, chocolate. The science ↓

Soup Stock

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Crack the shank bone to extract marrow.

  2. Place the bone in a pot with 4 cups of cold water.

Simmer

  1. Heat gradually to a slow simmer for 5 to 6 hours; do not boil.

  2. Skim the surface frequently for the first hour.

  3. Add leftover meats and flavorings as desired.

  4. If over-salted, add sugar and vinegar.

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. Horse + radishtop 4% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together529 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-methylbutyraldehyde (malty, chocolate).

  2. Beef + mushroomtop 4% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together3,232 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2,4-nonadienal (fatty, green).

  3. Celery + peppertop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together16,012 recipes

    Shared aroma: 4'-methylacetophenone (bitter almond).

  4. Beef + oniontop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together17,092 recipes

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

  5. Celery + oniontop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together18,518 recipes

    Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).

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

What each ingredient does

Beef shank bone
Releases marrow and collagen that give the stock body and rich flavor during long cooking.
Cold water
Extracts flavor slowly from the bone as it heats, producing a clear base for the stock.
Onion
Adds savory sweetness and aromatic depth as it softens and releases its flavor into the liquid.

The step that matters

Heat gradually to a slow simmer; do not boil. Boiling emulsifies fat and agitates particles into the liquid, leaving the stock cloudy and greasy. A gentle simmer keeps it clear while still extracting flavor from the bone over several hours.

Swap the onion

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (beef, celery, pepper, horse, radish, mushroom, sugar):

  1. Mustardfits better
  2. Capsicumfits better
  3. Carrotfits better
  4. Onionthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against beef, celery, pepper, horse, radish, mushroom, 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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