Name: Veal Broth
Ingredients: 1 knuckle of veal; water or stock; 1 cup of rice; salt and pepper to taste

Why it works: Rice and pepper are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 12% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 8,379 recipes. Both carry trans-2-nonenal, which smells cardboard, fatty. The science ↓

Veal Broth

Ingredients

1 knuckle of veal
water or stock
1 cup of rice
salt and pepper to taste

Directions

Make the broth

Cover the knuckle of veal with water or stock.
Boil until tender.

Finish the soup

Remove the meat from the bones and cut into small pieces.
Add the rice and cook until done.
Season with salt and pepper to taste.

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.

Rice + peppertop 12% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together8,379 recipes

Shared aroma: trans-2-nonenal (cardboard, fatty).
Veal + peppertop 19% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together10,049 recipes

Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).
Veal + ricetop 19% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together1,119 recipes

Shared aroma: 2,4-nonadienal (fatty, green).

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 flavour as it simmers and releases gelatin.
Rice: Absorbs liquid and swells as it cooks, thickening the broth and giving the soup substance.

“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.