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White Stock

A clear stock made from fowl, veal, vegetables, and spices, simmered for three hours.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 9 ingredients
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Why it works: Leek and celery match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 4% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 1,093 recipes. Both carry coumarin, which smells sweet, hay. The science ↓

White Stock

Ingredients

Directions

The book gives no cooking times; the times in the steps were added in transcription, so check for doneness rather than trusting the clock.

  1. Place the fowl and veal in a large saucepan and cover with cold water.

  2. Bring to a boil quickly to allow the scum to rise, then remove the scum.

  3. Add the salt, skim again, and add the vegetables, cloves, and pepper.

  4. Simmer slowly for 3 hours.

  5. Strain through a clean towel and allow to cool.

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. Leek + celerytop 4% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together1,093 recipes

    Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).

  2. Onion + leektop 4% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together1,326 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl butyrate (apple, fruity).

  3. Leek + clovetop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together579 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-nonanone (fruity, floral).

  4. Celery + clovetop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together4,668 recipes

    Shared aroma: gamma-decalactone (peach, creamy).

  5. Onion + celerytop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together18,518 recipes

    Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).

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

What each ingredient does

Fowl
Releases gelatin and body into the broth while simmering, giving the stock its flavour base.
Veal
Adds gelatin and richness, giving the stock body as it simmers slowly.
Leeks
Contribute mild, sweet aromatic flavour to the broth during the long simmer.

The step that matters

Skimming the scum after the initial boil. Bringing the liquid to a boil quickly lifts impurities and proteins to the surface as scum. Removing it keeps the stock clear and clean-tasting rather than cloudy or muddy.

Swap the white pepper

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

  1. Thymefits better
  2. Parsleyfits better
  3. Marjoramfits better
  4. White pepperthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against veal, onion, leek, celery, clove. 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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