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Pectoral Broth, with Turnips

A veal and turnip broth reduced to a thick consistency, sweetened with rock candy and white powdered gum.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 7 ingredients
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Why it works: Almond and turnip share more aroma than cooks usually use. They rank in the top 8% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 54 recipes. Both carry coumarin, which smells sweet, hay. The science ↓

Pectoral Broth, with Turnips

Ingredients

Directions

Make the broth

  1. In a saucepan, combine cold water, veal shin, lungs, and shelled almonds.

  2. Bring to a boil and simmer until the broth reduces to half its original quantity.

  3. While the broth simmers, pare the turnips, wrap them in cooking paper, and bake until done.

  4. Remove the papers and add the turnips to the broth.

  5. Continue to reduce the broth to one quarter of its original quantity.

Finish and serve

  1. Strain the broth, return it to the saucepan, and add rock candy and white powdered gum.

  2. Keep the broth warm and serve as needed.

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. Almond + turniptop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together54 recipes

    Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).

  2. Veal + turniptop 21% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together1,343 recipes

    Shared aroma: 3-hexenol (green, grassy).

  3. Veal + almondtop 29% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together341 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 shin
Releases gelatin and savory flavor into the broth as it simmers and reduces.
Turnips
Add mild sweetness and body to the broth once baked and added.
Rock candy
Adds sweetness to the finished broth.
White powdered gum
Thickens the broth and gives it a smoother, more body-rich texture.

The step that matters

Reducing the broth in stages. Reducing too fast or too far can scorch the liquid or make it overly salty and concentrated. Gradual simmering concentrates flavor and gelatin evenly while keeping the broth drinkable.

Swap the almond

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

  1. Lentilsfits better
  2. Chestnutfits better
  3. Beansfits better
  4. Almondthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against veal, turnip. 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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