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Meat Broth

A savory broth made by simmering veal, mutton, fowl, onion, barley or rice, and dried red pepper.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 6 ingredients
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Why it works: Onion and barley are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 10% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 1,166 recipes. Both carry 2,4-decadienal, which smells seaweed. The science ↓

Meat Broth

Ingredients

Directions

  1. In a large pot, combine the knuckle of veal, shanks of mutton, and old fowl.

  2. Add the chopped onion, barley or rice, and dried red pepper.

  3. Cover with water and bring to a boil.

  4. Reduce heat and simmer for several hours until the meat is tender.

  5. Strain the broth and serve hot.

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. Onion + barleytop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,166 recipes

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

  2. Onion + peppertop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together68,474 recipes

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

  3. Barley + peppertop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together897 recipes

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

  4. Mutton + barleytop 14% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together510 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl octanoate (fruity).

  5. Veal + muttontop 14% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together1,394 recipes

    Shared aroma: 1-nonanal (fatty, waxy).

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

What each ingredient does

Veal knuckle
Gives the broth body and rich, savory flavor as it simmers slowly.
Mutton shanks
Adds meaty depth and gelatin from connective tissue as they cook long and slow.
Old fowl
Its mature meat and bones release more flavor into the broth during long simmering.
Barley or rice
Thickens the broth slightly and adds starchy body as it softens.

The step that matters

Simmer gently for several hours. A gentle simmer draws flavor and gelatin from the bones and meat without clouding the broth. A hard boil emulsifies fat and fine particles into the liquid, making it cloudy and greasy.

Swap the onion

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (veal, mutton, barley, pepper):

  1. Leekfits better
  2. Carrotfits better
  3. Asparagusfits better
  4. Onionthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against veal, mutton, barley, pepper. 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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