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Economic Stock for Soup, Gravy, Etc

A low-cost broth made from bones, bacon, chicken parts, vegetables, herbs, and spices, simmered for hours.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 13 ingredients
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Why it works: Turnip and leek match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 1,046 recipes. Both carry coumarin, which smells sweet, hay. The science ↓

Economic Stock for Soup, Gravy, Etc

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Chop the bones, bacon, and chicken parts.

  2. In a saucepan, heat 1 tablespoon of fat over medium heat.

  3. Add the chopped ingredients, onions, carrot, turnip, celery, leek, herbs, and peppercorns. Fry until the bottom is browned.

Simmer

  1. Cover the bones with cold water and add a little salt.

  2. Bring to a gentle boil, skimming off any scum.

  3. Simmer steadily for 3-4 hours without boiling quickly.

Strain and cool

  1. Strain the stock and let it cool.

  2. Remove the fat from the top for other uses.

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. Turnip + leektop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together1,046 recipes

    Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).

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

    Shared aroma: myristicin (spice, warm).

  3. Carrot + turniptop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together8,002 recipes

    Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).

  4. Leek + thymetop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together360 recipes

    Shared aroma: 1-octen-3-ol (mushroom, earthy).

  5. Turnip + celerytop 2% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together4,418 recipes

    Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).

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

What each ingredient does

Bones
Release gelatin and body into the water, giving the stock its richness and mouthfeel.
Onions
Add sweetness and savoury depth as they brown in the fat.
Carrot
Adds natural sweetness and aromatic flavour to the broth.
Celery
Contributes aromatic, savoury flavour to the base.
Chicken parts
Add meaty flavour and extra gelatin from the necks, feet, and gizzards.

The step that matters

Simmer gently without a rolling boil. A rolling boil emulsifies fat and cloudies the stock, while a gentle simmer keeps it clear and lets collagen and flavour extract slowly.

“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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