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White Stock

A clear broth made from veal knuckle, whole fowl, bay leaf, onion, celery, parsley, and water.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 7 ingredients
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Why it works: Celery and parsley match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 6,810 recipes. Both carry 4'-methylacetophenone, which smells bitter almond. The science ↓

White Stock

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Cut the meat from the bone and break the bone into pieces.

  2. Wash the skin of the fowl thoroughly with a cloth and bowl of water, then cut it into pieces.

Make the stock

  1. Add the chopped vegetables and 4 quarts of water for each pound of meat and bone to a kettle.

  2. Bring to a boil, cover, and simmer for 4 to 5 hours.

Strain and cool

  1. Strain the stock and cool it uncovered.

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 + parsleytop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together6,810 recipes

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

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

    Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).

  3. Onion + parsleytop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together25,843 recipes

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

  4. Veal + oniontop 17% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together6,841 recipes

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

  5. Veal + parsleytop 17% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together4,766 recipes

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

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

What each ingredient does

Veal knuckle
Bones and meat release gelatin and flavour into the water, giving the stock body.
Fowl
Meat and bones add savoury flavour and gelatin to the broth.
Onion
Adds aromatic sweetness and depth to the stock as it simmers.
Celery
Contributes aromatic background flavour during the long simmer.

The step that matters

Keep the stock at a gentle simmer. A hard boil emulsifies fat and fine particles into the liquid, making the stock cloudy and greasy. Gentle heat keeps it clear while collagen slowly dissolves.

Swap the onion

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (veal, celery, parsley):

  1. Carrotfits better
  2. Turnipfits better
  3. Parsnipfits better
  4. Onionthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against veal, celery, 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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