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Veal Broth

A clear broth made by simmering a veal knuckle with mace, onion, celery, parsley, pepper, and salt.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 9 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 ↓

Veal Broth

Ingredients

Directions

Make the broth

  1. Stew the knuckle of veal in 3 quarts of water with mace, onion, celery, parsley, pepper, and salt.

  2. Simmer gently until the liquid reduces to 2 quarts.

  3. Remove the meat when the mucilaginous parts are done.

Serve

  1. Serve the broth with either boiled rice or vermicelli, adding it only long enough to cook tender.

  2. Dish the knuckle separately and serve with parsley and butter.

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. Parsley + peppertop 2% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together34,122 recipes

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

  3. Celery + peppertop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together16,012 recipes

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

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

    Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).

  5. Celery + ricetop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,169 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

Veal knuckle
Releases gelatin and collagen into the water, giving the broth body and a silky mouthfeel.
Water
Acts as the cooking liquid that extracts flavour and gelatin from the bones and meat.
Onion
Adds savoury, sweet depth to the broth as it simmers.
Celery
Contributes aromatic, vegetal flavour to the broth.
Rice or vermicelli
Adds starch and bulk when served in the broth, softening as it cooks.

The step that matters

Simmer gently until the liquid reduces to 2 quarts.. A gentle simmer extracts gelatin and flavour slowly while keeping the broth clear. A hard boil emulsifies fats and clouds the liquid, and over-reduction makes it too concentrated.

Swap the mace

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

  1. Thymefits better
  2. Turmericfits better
  3. Marjoramfits better
  4. Macethe original

Fit is the average pairing score against veal, onion, celery, parsley, pepper, rice. 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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