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Veal and Rice Broth

A veal broth flavored with onion, celery, and rice, finished with milk and corn starch.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 10 ingredients
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Why it works: Celery and parsley match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 6,810 recipes. Both carry 4'-methylacetophenone, which smells bitter almond. The science ↓

Veal and Rice Broth

Ingredients

Directions

Make the broth

  1. Place the veal and bones in a pot with the minced onion and celery, and add 4 quarts of cold water.

  2. Bring the pot to a gentle boil, then cover the pot.

  3. Simmer for 4 hours.

  4. Strain the broth into a bowl.

  5. Cool the broth to remove the fat.

  6. Return the broth to the pot.

Cook the rice

  1. Soak the rice in lukewarm water for 1 hour.

  2. Add warmer water as needed.

  3. Cook the rice in the soaking water, shaking the pot occasionally without stirring.

Finish the soup

  1. Season with salt and pepper.

  2. Bring the broth to a boil.

  3. Stir in the corn-starch mixed with milk and simmer for 3 minutes.

  4. Add the rice with its cooking water and chopped parsley.

  5. Simmer gently for 5 minutes before serving.

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. Celery + parsleytop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together6,810 recipes

    Shared aroma: 4'-methylacetophenone (bitter almond).

  2. Parsley + peppertop 2% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together34,122 recipes

    Shared aroma: 4'-methylacetophenone (bitter almond).

  3. Celery + peppertop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together16,012 recipes

    Shared aroma: 4'-methylacetophenone (bitter almond).

  4. Rice + corntop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together933 recipes

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

  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

Veal knuckle and bones
Releases gelatin and flavor into the water, giving the broth body.
Rice
Absorbs liquid and softens, adding bulk and a starchy body to the soup.
Corn-starch
Thickens the broth slightly when stirred in and brought near a simmer.
Milk
Adds richness and softness to the broth, mixed with corn-starch before adding.
Onion and celery
Add aromatic flavor to the broth as it simmers.

The step that matters

Cooling the broth to remove the fat. Fat floats on cooled broth and solidifies, so it can be lifted off cleanly. Skipping the chill leaves greasy, cloudy broth with a heavy mouthfeel.

Swap the onion

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (veal, celery, rice, parsley, pepper, milk, corn):

  1. Carrotfits better
  2. Capsicumfits better
  3. Potatofits better
  4. Onionthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against veal, celery, rice, parsley, pepper, milk, corn. 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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