Skip to main content
Main

Mutton-stock for Soups

Stock made from beef and mutton, ham or bacon, water, salt, celery, onions, turnips, carrots, herbs, peppercorns, cloves, and mace, simmered six hours.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 13 ingredients
Jump to recipe ↓

Why it works: Celery and carrot 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 ↓

Mutton-stock for Soups

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Combine equal parts of beef and mutton with ham or bacon in a large pot.

  2. Add 1 to 1½ gallons of cold water for each pound of meat.

Simmer

  1. Bring to a boil, skimming off any foam that forms.

  2. Add salt, celery, onions, turnips, carrots, herbs, peppercorns, cloves, and mace.

  3. Reduce heat and simmer gently for about 6 hours.

Strain and serve

  1. Strain the stock and let it cool, removing any fat before serving.

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. Celery + carrottop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together10,173 recipes

    Shared aroma: myristicin (spice, warm).

  2. Turnip + carrottop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together8,002 recipes

    Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).

  3. Celery + turniptop 2% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together4,418 recipes

    Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).

  4. Carrot + thymetop 3% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together4,563 recipes

    Shared aroma: cuminaldehyde (Spicy, cumin).

  5. Celery + thymetop 3% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together3,193 recipes

    Shared aroma: beta-phellandrene (minty, terpene).

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

What each ingredient does

Beef
Releases gelatin and savory flavor into the stock during long simmering.
Mutton
Adds rich, meaty flavor and body to the stock.
Ham or bacon
Contributes smoky, salty fat and savory depth to the broth.
Onions
Add sweetness and aromatic depth as they cook down into the stock.

The step that matters

Skimming the foam after the boil. Foam carries proteins and impurities that can cloud the stock and taint its flavor if left to recombine into the liquid.

Swap the thyme

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (beef, mutton, ham, celery, onion, turnip, carrot):

  1. Parsleyfits about as well
  2. Thymethe original
  3. Marjoramfits about as well
  4. Pepperfits about as well

Fit is the average pairing score against beef, mutton, ham, celery, onion, turnip, carrot. 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.

You might also like

Beef, Mutton, or Veal BrothBeef, Mutton, or Veal Broth6 recipesMutton BrothMutton Broth292 recipesRoast BeefRoast Beef211 recipesBeef LoafBeef Loaf175 recipes