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Calves' Foot Broth

A broth made by simmering calves' feet with wine, jelly, sugar, nutmeg, and egg yolk.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 9 ingredients
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Why it works: Nutmeg and lemon match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 5% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 11,318 recipes. Both carry beta-phellandrene, which smells minty, terpene. The science ↓

Calves' Foot Broth

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the stock

  1. Cook the calves' feet in the cold water until reduced to 2 cups.

  2. Strain the mixture and set aside for later use.

Make the broth

  1. To make the broth, add the wine to the jelly and remove any fat.

  2. In a saucepan, combine the jelly, wine, sugar, and nutmeg.

  3. Bring to a boil, then add a little of the mixture to the egg yolk.

  4. Stir in the butter and mix well; do not return to the stove.

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. Nutmeg + lemontop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together11,318 recipes

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

  2. White wine + buttertop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together5,083 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl octanoate (fruity, wine).

  3. White wine + lemontop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together3,832 recipes

    Shared aroma: myrcene (balsamic, herbaceous).

  4. Nutmeg + buttertop 16% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together24,377 recipes

    Shared aroma: eucalyptol (eucalyptus, herbal).

  5. Butter + lemontop 16% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together41,227 recipes

    Shared aroma: 3-hexenal (apple, fruity).

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

What each ingredient does

Calves' feet
Release gelatin and body into the cooking liquid, giving the broth richness.
White wine
Adds acidity and a bright, tart flavour to balance the richness.
Jelly
Adds gelatin that sets and thickens the finished broth.
Egg yolk
Thickens and enriches the broth as its proteins set gently with heat.
Butter
Adds fat for a smooth, rounded mouthfeel and flavour.

The step that matters

Adding the egg yolk. Egg yolk thickens when heated, but if it is added to very hot liquid without tempering, or returned to the stove, it can scramble. Adding a little warm mixture first and then removing the pan from the heat keeps the broth smooth.

Swap the lemon

The recipe marks lemon as optional. How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (white wine, nutmeg, sugar, egg, butter):

  1. Lemonthe original
  2. Vanillafits about as well
  3. Figfits less well
  4. Applefits less well

Fit is the average pairing score against white wine, nutmeg, sugar, egg, butter. 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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