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White Stock

A clear stock made from veal, fowl, butter, onions, celery, mace, cinnamon, and water, simmered for hours.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 9 ingredients
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Why it works: Celery and pepper match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 5% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 16,012 recipes. Both carry 4'-methylacetophenone, which smells bitter almond. The science ↓

White Stock

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the meat

  1. In a large soup pot, melt the butter over medium heat.

  2. Cut the veal and fowl into small pieces and add them to the pot.

  3. Cover the pot and cook slowly for 35 minutes, stirring often.

Simmer the stock

  1. Add the water and bring to a boil, skimming off any foam.

  2. Reduce heat and let it simmer gently for 6 hours.

  3. After 6 hours, add the onions, celery, mace, and cinnamon, and simmer for an additional hour.

Strain and store

  1. Strain the stock and cool it quickly.

  2. Refrigerate overnight and remove any fat that solidifies on top.

  3. Store the stock in a stone jar in a very cold place.

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

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

  2. Celery + cinnamontop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together1,009 recipes

    Shared aroma: beta-phellandrene (minty, terpene).

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

    Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).

  4. Chicken + oniontop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together17,814 recipes

    Shared aroma: gamma-nonanolactone (coconut, sweet).

  5. Cinnamon + peppertop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together4,890 recipes

    Shared aroma: methyl cinnamate (strawberry).

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

What each ingredient does

Veal
Breaks down into gelatin and body, giving the stock a rich, full texture.
Fowl
Adds additional gelatin and savory meat flavor to the stock.
Butter
Carries flavor in the pot at the start and adds richness.
Onions
Add sweetness and aromatic depth as they cook slowly in the stock.
Celery
Contributes a fresh, vegetal aroma that rounds out the stock's flavor.

The step that matters

Skimming the foam after boiling. Foam carries impurities from the meat that cloud the stock and can taint its flavor. Skimming as it rises keeps the stock clear and clean-tasting.

Swap the mace

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (veal, chicken, butter, onion, celery, cinnamon, pepper):

  1. Thymefits better
  2. Parsleyfits better
  3. Tarragonfits better
  4. Macethe original

Fit is the average pairing score against veal, chicken, butter, onion, celery, cinnamon, pepper. 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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