Why it works: Beef and mace are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 25% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 2,969 recipes. Both carry alpha-pinene, which smells pine, turpentine. The science ↓
Shin of Beef Stock
Ingredients
Directions
Prepare
Break the bone of the shin of beef in one or two places and remove the marrow.
If not using the marrow immediately, clarify and store it for future use.
Simmer
Combine the shin of beef with 9 pints of cold water in a large pot.
Stew gently for 6 to 7 hours, or longer until the meat is in fragments.
Add the savory herbs, peppercorns, and mace during the last hour of cooking.
Strain and store
Strain the stock and store it in a clean, well-scalded container.
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.
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Beef + macetop 25% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together2,969 recipes
Shared aroma: alpha-pinene (pine, turpentine).
Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs
What each ingredient does
- Shin of beef
- Breaks down during long stewing, releasing gelatin and flavor that give the stock body and richness.
- Savory herbs
- Add a mild, aromatic herbal flavor to the stock.
- Peppercorns
- Add a gentle, warm spiciness that rounds out the stock's flavor.
- Mace
- Adds a delicate, warm aroma to the stock.
The step that matters
Stew gently for 6 to 7 hours. Keeping the stock at a gentle simmer rather than a hard boil lets collagen slowly convert to gelatin while the liquid stays clear. Boiling vigorously emulsifies fats and clouds 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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