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White Stock

A clear stock made from white meat, onions, celery, mace, peppercorns, salt, thyme, lemon peel, and cayenne.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 9 ingredients
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Why it works: Lemon and thyme match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 3,973 recipes. Both carry beta-phellandrene, which smells minty, terpene. The science ↓

White Stock

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Cut the meat into small pieces and chop the vegetables.

  2. Put all ingredients into a saucepan and cover with cold water.

Simmer and strain

  1. Bring to a boil and skim off any foam.

  2. Reduce heat and simmer gently for several hours, skimming as needed.

  3. Strain the stock and let it cool, then remove the fat.

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. Lemon + thymetop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together3,973 recipes

    Shared aroma: beta-phellandrene (minty, terpene).

  2. Celery + thymetop 3% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together3,193 recipes

    Shared aroma: beta-phellandrene (minty, terpene).

  3. Lemon + peppertop 3% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together27,047 recipes

    Shared aroma: trans-2-nonenal (cardboard, fatty).

  4. Celery + lemontop 3% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together3,467 recipes

    Shared aroma: beta-phellandrene (minty, terpene).

  5. Thyme + peppertop 4% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together11,585 recipes

    Shared aroma: beta-phellandrene (minty, terpene).

Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs

What each ingredient does

White meat (veal, rabbit, or chicken)
Provides the main flavor and body, with gelatin from bones and connective tissue enriching the stock.
Onions
Add sweetness and savory depth to the stock as they simmer.
Celery
Adds a fresh, vegetal background aroma to the stock.

The step that matters

Skim off the foam after boiling. Foam carries coagulated proteins and impurities that would cloud the stock and can taste bitter if left in. Removing it early keeps the finished stock clear and clean.

Swap the mace

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (meat, onion, celery, lemon, thyme, pepper):

  1. Parsleyfits better
  2. Marjoramfits better
  3. Rosemaryfits better
  4. Macethe original

Fit is the average pairing score against meat, onion, celery, lemon, thyme, pepper. 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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