Skip to main content
Drink

Stock for Whttb Soup

A clear stock made from lean ham, veal, water, salt, onions, celery, carrots, pepper, and mace, simmered for 5–6 hours.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 9 ingredients
Jump to recipe ↓

Why it works: Celery and carrot match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 10,173 recipes. Both carry myristicin, which smells spice, warm. The science ↓

Stock for Whttb Soup

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Place the ham in a clean soup pot or large iron saucepan.

  2. Add the veal and pour in 1 pint of cold water for each pound of meat, or 1 ½ pints for a richer stock.

Simmer

  1. Bring to a boil, skimming off any scum that forms.

  2. Add the salt, onions, celery, carrots, pepper, and mace.

  3. Reduce heat and let the stock simmer gently for 5 to 6 hours, until the meat falls from the bones.

Strain and cool

  1. Strain the stock into a clean deep pan and cool it before storing.

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 + carrottop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together10,173 recipes

    Shared aroma: myristicin (spice, warm).

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

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

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

    Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).

  4. White pepper + macetop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,695 recipes

    Shared aroma: myrcene (balsamic, herbaceous).

  5. Carrot + macetop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,592 recipes

    Shared aroma: myristicin (spice, warm).

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

What each ingredient does

Veal
Releases gelatin and flavour into the water, giving the stock body as it simmers.
Lean ham
Adds savoury, smoky depth to the stock as it simmers slowly in the water.
Onions
Contribute sweetness and aromatic flavour to the background of the stock.
Celery
Adds aromatic, savoury flavour that rounds out the stock.
Carrots
Add gentle sweetness and aromatic flavour to the finished stock.

The step that matters

Skimming the scum after the boil. Scum is coagulated protein and impurities that rise when the liquid first boils. Removing it keeps the stock clear and clean-tasting rather than cloudy or greasy.

Swap the white pepper

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (ham, veal, onion, celery, carrot, mace):

  1. Parsleyfits better
  2. Marjoramfits better
  3. Thymefits better
  4. White pepperthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against ham, veal, onion, celery, carrot, mace. 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.

You might also like

Vegetable SoupVegetable Soup350 recipesRaspberry VinegarRaspberry Vinegar214 recipesBrown Coffee with EggBrown Coffee with Egg175 recipesBlackberry CordialBlackberry Cordial129 recipes