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Second Stock

A clarified stock made by simmering a first stock with beef and egg whites to remove fat and impurities.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 6 ingredients
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Why it works: Meat and beef are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 12% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 2,533 recipes. Both carry 1-octen-3-one, which smells mushroom, metallic. The science ↓

Second Stock

Ingredients

Directions

Make the stock

  1. Place all the meat and bones from the first stock into a stock pot.

  2. Cover the meat with hot water and add a little salt.

  3. Boil the stock for six hours.

  4. Strain the stock through a fine sieve and store it in a cool place.

Clarify and finish

  1. When ready to use, skim off the fat.

  2. Mince raw lean beef.

  3. Beat the egg whites with the shells.

  4. Mix the minced beef and beaten egg whites with cold stock.

  5. Pour the mixture into a pan on the hot plate.

  6. Stir the mixture occasionally until it boils.

  7. Remove scum as it rises.

  8. Strain the clarified stock through a fine sieve.

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. Meat + beeftop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,533 recipes

    Shared aroma: 1-octen-3-one (mushroom, metallic).

  2. Meat + eggtop 22% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together6,432 recipes

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

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

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

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

What each ingredient does

Raw lean beef
Its proteins bind to impurities as they heat, gathering them into a raft that clears the stock.
Egg whites
As they cook they coagulate and trap fine particles, helping the stock become clear.
Meat and bones from first stock
They release gelatin and flavour into the water during the long simmer, giving body to the stock.

The step that matters

Stir the mixture occasionally until it boils. Stirring keeps the minced beef and egg whites evenly dispersed so they can form a clearing raft. Heating too fast or stirring too much can break the raft and cloud the stock.

“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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