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A Nourishing Broth

A clear broth made from veal knuckle, old fowl, mutton shank bones, mace, peppercorns, onion, bread, and water.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 9 ingredients
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Why it works: Mutton and bread are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 12% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 1,488 recipes. Both carry delta-decalactone, which smells sweet, creamy. The science ↓

A Nourishing Broth

Ingredients

Directions

  1. Combine the veal knuckle, old fowl, shank bones, mace, peppercorns, onion, bread, and water in a stew pan with a close cover.

  2. Simmer slowly for four hours, skimming as necessary.

  3. Strain the broth, remove the fat, and season to taste.

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. Mutton + breadtop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,488 recipes

    Shared aroma: delta-decalactone (sweet, creamy).

  2. Meat + muttontop 14% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together936 recipes

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

  3. Meat + breadtop 14% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,924 recipes

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

  4. Veal + muttontop 14% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together1,394 recipes

    Shared aroma: 1-nonanal (fatty, waxy).

  5. Onion + breadtop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together8,676 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 knuckle
Adds body and gelatine from bone and connective tissue, giving the broth richness and mouthfeel.
Old fowl
Contributes deep poultry flavour and collagen that enriches the broth as it simmers.
Mutton shank bones
Release marrow, collagen and savoury flavour into the liquid during long, slow simmering.
Onion
Adds sweet, aromatic background flavour that rounds out the broth.

The step that matters

Simmer slowly and skim. A gentle simmer keeps the broth clear, while a rolling boil emulsifies fat and cloudes the liquid. Skimming removes impurities and excess fat that would otherwise make the broth greasy and murky.

Swap the mace

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (veal, meat, mutton, onion, bread):

  1. Garlicfits better
  2. Celeryfits better
  3. Pepperfits better
  4. Macethe original

Fit is the average pairing score against veal, meat, mutton, onion, bread. 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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