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Calf's-feet Broth

A clear broth made from calf's feet, sweetened with jelly, wine, sugar, nutmeg, and finished with egg yolk, butter, and lemon peel.

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 ↓

Calf's-feet Broth

Ingredients

Directions

Make the broth

  1. Boil the calf's feet in 3 quarts of water until reduced to 1½ quarts.

  2. Strain the broth and set it aside.

  3. When ready to use, remove the fat from the broth.

Finish the broth

  1. In a saucepan, combine the jelly, sweet wine, sugar, and nutmeg, and heat until just below boiling.

  2. Gradually beat some of the hot mixture into the egg yolk, then stir in the butter.

  3. Combine everything, adding grated lemon peel, but do not let it boil.

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. Wine + lemontop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together6,157 recipes

    Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).

  3. Wine + buttertop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together8,645 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-furfurylthiol (coffee, roasted).

  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

Calf's feet
Break down into gelatin, giving the broth its body and tendency to set.
Egg yolk
Enriches the mixture and thickens it gently when heated without boiling.
Jelly
Adds sweetness and extra gelling body to the finished broth.
Sweet wine
Adds acidity and aromatic flavour to the broth.
Butter
Adds richness and a smooth, rounded mouthfeel.

The step that matters

Do not let it boil after adding the egg yolk. Egg yolk thickens by gentle heat, but if it boils the proteins tighten and curdle, leaving the broth grainy instead of smooth.

Swap the nutmeg

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (wine, sugar, egg, butter, lemon):

  1. Cinnamonfits better
  2. Tarragonfits about as well
  3. Nutmegthe original
  4. Parsleyfits about as well

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