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White Stock for Soups and Sauces

A clear stock made by simmering ham, bacon, veal bones, poultry remains, stock, parsley, scallions, and mushrooms in water.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 8 ingredients
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Why it works: Parsley and mushroom are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 11% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 6,132 recipes. Both carry 2,4-decadienal, which smells seaweed. The science ↓

White Stock for Soups and Sauces

Ingredients

Directions

Build the base

  1. Cover a saucepan with slices of fat ham or lean bacon.

  2. Lay bones of veal over the bacon.

  3. Add remains of poultry or game on top.

  4. Pour in 1-2 ladlefuls of stock and let it sweat until it glazes.

Simmer

  1. Fill the pot with stock or warm water.

  2. Season with parsley, scallions, and mushrooms.

  3. Simmer slowly, covered, until done.

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. Parsley + mushroomtop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together6,132 recipes

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

  2. Veal + mushroomtop 14% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,446 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2,4-nonadienal (fatty, green).

  3. Ham + mushroomtop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,486 recipes

    Shared aroma: 1-octen-3-ol (mushroom, earthy).

  4. Ham + vealtop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together3,264 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

Bones of veal
Release gelatin and body into the stock during long simmering, giving it richness.
Slices of fat ham or lean bacon
Adds savory fat and aroma to the base as it sweats.
Remains of poultry or game
Contributes meaty flavour and additional body to the stock.
Mushrooms
Add earthy aroma and savory depth to the finished stock.

The step that matters

Simmer slowly, covered, until done. A gentle simmer keeps the stock clear, because a rolling boil emulsifies fat and cloudies the liquid while extracting bitter flavours from the bones.

Swap the parsley

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

  1. Thymefits better
  2. Marjoramfits better
  3. Celeryfits about as well
  4. Parsleythe original

Fit is the average pairing score against ham, veal, mushroom. 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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