Skip to main content
Main

Veal, Coxsomme

A hearty broth made from veal knuckle, fowl, mutton shank bones, mace or celery, peppercorns, onion, and water.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 8 ingredients
Jump to recipe ↓

Why it works: Veal and mutton are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 14% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 1,394 recipes. Both carry 1-nonanal, which smells fatty, waxy. The science ↓

Veal, Coxsomme

Ingredients

Directions

Make the broth

  1. Combine the knuckle of veal, fowl, mutton shank bones, mace or celery, peppercorns, onion, and water in a large pot.

  2. Bring to a boil, skimming off any scum that rises.

  3. Cover the pot and let it simmer for 4 to 6 hours.

Season and serve

  1. Season with coarse sea salt, then cool and serve either iced or 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. Veal + muttontop 14% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together1,394 recipes

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

  2. Mace + oniontop 17% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together7,078 recipes

    Shared aroma: eugenol (clove, spicy).

  3. Veal + oniontop 17% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together6,841 recipes

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

  4. Veal + macetop 18% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together3,761 recipes

    Shared aroma: alpha-pinene (pine, turpentine).

  5. Mutton + oniontop 18% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together4,531 recipes

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

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

What each ingredient does

Veal knuckle
Releases collagen and gelatin, giving the broth body and a rich mouthfeel.
Fowl
Adds meaty flavor and additional gelatin and savoriness to the broth.
Mutton shank bones
Contribute marrow, collagen and deep meaty flavor as they simmer slowly.
Onion
Adds savory sweetness and aromatic depth to the broth.

The step that matters

Skimming the scum after boiling. Scum is coagulated proteins and impurities that rise as the liquid heats. Removing them early keeps the broth clear and prevents off, bitter flavors from dispersing through it during the long simmer.

Swap the mace

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

  1. Garlicfits better
  2. Celeryfits better
  3. Pepperfits better
  4. Macethe original

Fit is the average pairing score against veal, mutton, onion. 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 recipesHaricot MuttonHaricot Mutton59 recipesMutton SoupMutton Soup56 recipes