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White Stock Soup

A clear veal stock soup made with veal knuckle, bacon, vegetables, herbs, and a milk-based thickening.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 13 ingredients
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Why it works: Carrot and turnip match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 8,002 recipes. Both carry coumarin, which smells sweet, hay. The science ↓

White Stock Soup

Ingredients

Directions

Make the stock

  1. Cut the meat and crack the bones.

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

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

  4. Bring the mixture to a slow boil.

  5. Skim off the scum as it rises.

  6. After one hour, add 1 gallon of cold water.

  7. Cover the pot.

  8. Cook gently for 4 hours.

  9. Strain the liquid, which should yield about 5 quarts.

  10. Rub the vegetables through a colander.

Cool and store

  1. Remove bones and meat.

  2. Season the mixture well.

  3. Place it in a wide-mouthed jar or large bowl.

  4. Add 3 quarts of well-salted stock.

  5. Refrigerate when cool.

  6. Remove the fat from today's stock.

Finish the soup

  1. Season the stock.

  2. Add chopped parsley.

  3. Heat 1 cup of milk.

  4. Stir in the floured butter, cooking for 3 minutes.

  5. After the soup has simmered for 10 minutes and been skimmed, pour it 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 + turniptop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together8,002 recipes

    Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).

  2. Carrot + clovetop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together5,873 recipes

    Shared aroma: cuminaldehyde (Spicy, cumin).

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

    Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).

  4. Turnip + clovetop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together2,233 recipes

    Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).

  5. Onion + carrottop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together21,601 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).

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

What each ingredient does

Knuckle of veal
Its bones and connective tissue release body and gelatin into the long-simmered stock.
Lean bacon
Adds savory, smoky depth to the stock.
Butter and flour
Flour cooked in butter thickens the milk into a smooth, richer base.
Milk
Gives the soup a creamy texture and mild sweetness.
Onions
Contribute sweetness and aroma as they cook slowly in the stock.

The step that matters

Stir in the floured butter, cooking for 3 minutes. Flour thickens only when its starch is heated and swollen in fat and liquid. Cooking it for the full 3 minutes removes the raw flour taste and gives a smooth, even thickness instead of lumps.

Swap the mace

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

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

Fit is the average pairing score against veal, butter, flour, onion, carrot, turnip, 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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