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Soup Stock

A rich stock made from beef shin, veal knuckle, bacon, vegetables, and herbs simmered for hours.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 13 ingredients
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Soup Stock

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 ↓

Soup Stock

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Cut the meat and bacon into 3‑inch pieces and break the bones into small pieces.

  2. Rub the butter on the bottom of a stew pan.

  3. Add ½ pint of water.

  4. Add the broken bones, meat, vegetables, and seasoning.

Cook

  1. Cover the stew pan and place it on a sharp fire, stirring occasionally.

  2. When the contents become jelly‑like, add the cold water and let it simmer for 5 to 6 hours.

  3. When nearly cooked, add 1 tablespoon of salt to raise the scum and remove it while boiling.

Strain and cool

  1. Strain the stock through a fine sieve, let it cool, and remove the grease.

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. Carrot + celerytop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together10,173 recipes

    Shared aroma: myristicin (spice, warm).

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

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

  3. Carrot + peppertop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together14,555 recipes

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

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

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

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

Beef shin
Gives the stock body and rich meaty flavour as it breaks down slowly.
Veal knuckle
Releases gelatin during long simmering, giving the stock a jelly-like body.
Bacon
Adds savoury, smoky depth to the stock's flavour.
Bones
Release gelatin and minerals during long simmering, adding body and richness.

The step that matters

Removing the scum while boiling. Impurities rise to the surface as the stock heats. Skimming them while boiling keeps the stock clear and clean-tasting; leaving them in makes it cloudy and bitter.

Swap the mace

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (beef, veal, onion, carrot, celery, pepper, butter):

  1. Parsleyfits better
  2. Thymefits better
  3. Marjoramfits better
  4. Macethe original

Fit is the average pairing score against beef, veal, onion, carrot, celery, pepper, butter. 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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