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Soup

Veal Broth

A clear soup made by simmering veal knuckle, ham, carrots, turnips, and celery in water.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 6 ingredients
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Why it works: Carrot and celery 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 ↓

Veal Broth

Ingredients

Directions

Make the broth

  1. In a large pot, combine the knuckle of veal, ham, and water.

  2. Bring the mixture to a gentle simmer, skimming off any foam.

  3. Simmer for 4 to 5 hours, depending on the size of the meat.

Add vegetables and serve

  1. Add the carrots, turnips, and celery, and stew for an additional 1.5 hours.

  2. Serve the soup hot, optionally with small dumplings.

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

    Shared aroma: myristicin (spice, warm).

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

    Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).

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

    Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).

  4. Veal + carrottop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together3,015 recipes

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

  5. Veal + hamtop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together3,264 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

Knuckle of veal
Long simmering breaks down collagen, giving the broth body and a rich, gelatinous mouthfeel.
Ham
Adds savory, salty depth and aroma to the broth as it simmers.
Carrots
Release natural sugars during stewing, adding gentle sweetness and color to the broth.
Celery
Contributes aromatic flavor and a subtle vegetal savor to the stewed broth.

The step that matters

Skimming the foam as it comes to a simmer. Foam contains coagulated proteins and impurities that would make the broth cloudy and give it an off, scummy taste. Removing it early keeps the broth clear and clean-flavored.

Swap the turnip

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (veal, ham, carrot, celery):

  1. Turnipthe original
  2. Leekfits about as well
  3. Parsnipfits about as well
  4. Tomatofits less well

Fit is the average pairing score against veal, ham, carrot, celery. 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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