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White Stock Soup

A clear veal stock soup with vegetables, butter, and milk, served chilled.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 12 ingredients
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Why it works: Carrot and parsley match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 8,053 recipes. Both carry 2,4-decadienal, which smells seaweed. The science ↓

White Stock Soup

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the stock

  1. Cut the meat and crack the bones.

  2. Slice the carrots, turnips, and one onion, leaving the whole onion with cloves.

  3. Combine the meat, bones, mace, and all herbs except parsley in 2 quarts of cold water.

  4. Bring to a slow boil. Skim off any scum that rises.

  5. After 1 hour, add the remaining 8 quarts of cold water.

  6. Cover and cook gently for 4 hours.

  7. Strain the liquid.

  8. Mash the vegetables through a colander.

  9. Remove bones and meat.

  10. Season the meat and vegetables.

  11. Place the seasoned meat and vegetables in a wide-mouth jar or large bowl.

  12. Add 3 quarts of well-salted stock.

  13. Refrigerate the mixture when cool.

  14. Remove the fat from the cooled stock.

  15. Season the stock.

Finish the soup

  1. Add chopped parsley.

  2. Heat the stock in a saucepan.

  3. Heat 1 cup of milk in another saucepan.

  4. Stir in the floured butter and cook for 3 minutes.

  5. Pour the simmered soup into a tureen.

  6. Stir in the thickened milk.

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 + parsleytop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together8,053 recipes

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

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

    Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).

  3. Turnip + parsleytop 2% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together2,842 recipes

    Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).

  4. Clove + carrottop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together5,873 recipes

    Shared aroma: cuminaldehyde (Spicy, cumin).

  5. Onion + turniptop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together7,585 recipes

    Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).

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

What each ingredient does

Veal knuckle
Releases gelatin and flavour into the stock, giving the soup body and richness.
Bacon
Adds smoky, savoury fat and depth of flavour to the broth.
Onions
Build sweet, aromatic depth as they cook slowly into the stock.
Carrots
Add natural sweetness and earthy flavour to the stock.
Turnips
Contribute mild sweetness and body when mashed into the soup.

The step that matters

Skim off any scum that rises. Scum is coagulated protein and impurities that cloud the stock and taste bitter if left in, so removing it early keeps the broth clear and clean-flavoured.

Swap the mace

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (veal, butter, onion, clove, carrot, turnip, parsley):

  1. Thymefits better
  2. Marjoramfits better
  3. Celeryfits better
  4. Macethe original

Fit is the average pairing score against veal, butter, onion, clove, carrot, turnip, parsley. 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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