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White Broth

A clear veal broth made by simmering a knuckle of white veal with root vegetables for six hours.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 9 ingredients
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Why it works: Turnip and leek match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 1,046 recipes. Both carry coumarin, which smells sweet, hay. The science ↓

White Broth

Ingredients

Directions

Make the broth

  1. In a large pot, place the veal knuckle and cover it completely with cold water.

  2. Add the salt and bring to a boil, skimming off any scum that rises.

  3. Once boiling, add the carrots, turnip, onion, parsley root, leeks, and celery leaves.

  4. Reduce heat and simmer slowly for about 6 hours, skimming grease and impurities as they appear.

Strain and store

  1. After 6 hours, strain the broth through cheesecloth into a stone crock.

  2. Cover the crock with cotton batting and store in a cool 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. Turnip + leektop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together1,046 recipes

    Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).

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

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

  3. Carrot + celerytop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together10,173 recipes

    Shared aroma: myristicin (spice, warm).

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

    Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).

  5. Parsley + celerytop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together6,810 recipes

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

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

What each ingredient does

White veal knuckle
Bone and connective tissue release gelatin, giving the broth body and a silky mouthfeel.
Carrots
Add natural sweetness and aromatic depth to the broth.
Onion
Contributes savory, mellow flavor as it cooks down into the stock.
Turnip
Adds a mild, slightly sweet vegetable flavor to the broth.

The step that matters

Skimming during the simmer. Scum and grease rise to the surface as the broth heats. Removing them keeps the broth clear and clean-tasting instead of cloudy and greasy.

Swap the leek

The recipe marks leek as optional. How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (carrot, turnip, onion, parsley, celery, veal):

  1. Leekthe original
  2. Parsnipfits about as well
  3. Okrafits less well
  4. Lettucefits less well

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