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Knuckle of Veal, or Shin or Leg of Beef, Soup

A hearty soup made from knuckle of veal or shin or leg of beef with bacon, root vegetables, herbs, and spices.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 13 ingredients
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Why it works: Carrot and celery match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 10,173 recipes. Both carry myristicin, which smells spice, warm. The science ↓

Knuckle of Veal, or Shin or Leg of Beef, Soup

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the pot

  1. Cut the bacon into slices about ½ inch thick and lay it at the bottom of a soup kettle.

  2. Chop the knuckle bone in 2 or 3 places and place the knuckle of veal on top of the bacon.

  3. Add the carrots, turnips, celery, onions (with cloves stuck in one), black peppercorns, Jamaica peppercorns, lemon‑thyme, winter savory, and parsley.

  4. Cover the meat with cold water and bring to a boil over high heat.

Simmer and strain

  1. Skim the surface, then reduce the heat and let it simmer gently for about 4 hours until tender.

  2. Remove the bacon and veal, strain the soup, and cool it in a separate container.

  3. Once cooled, remove the fat from the surface and decant the soup into a clean pan, leaving the sediment behind.

Thicken and serve

  1. For a thickened soup, heat 3 tablespoons of the fat in a small pan, mix with 4 tablespoons of flour, and gradually add a ladleful of soup until smooth.

  2. Combine the thickened mixture with the rest of the soup and bring to a boil.

  3. Cut the meat and gristle into bite-sized pieces and return them to the soup to warm through.

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. Carrot + celerytop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together10,173 recipes

    Shared aroma: myristicin (spice, warm).

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

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

  3. Carrot + turniptop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together8,002 recipes

    Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).

  4. Clove + thymetop 2% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together4,108 recipes

    Shared aroma: cuminaldehyde (Spicy, cumin).

  5. Turnip + celerytop 2% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together4,418 recipes

    Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).

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

What each ingredient does

Knuckle of veal
Gives the soup its body and rich meaty flavor as it simmers.
Bacon
Adds smoky, savory fat that flavors the broth from the bottom of the pot.
Flour (in the method)
Thickens the soup as its starch swells when cooked with the fat.
Onions
Add sweetness and aromatic depth to the broth as they cook down.
Carrots
Contribute natural sweetness and earthy flavor to the broth.

The step that matters

Gradually adding the soup to the flour and fat. Adding liquid all at once to flour causes lumps. Mixing the flour into hot fat first and whisking in broth a ladleful at a time lets the starch disperse evenly before it thickens the whole pot.

Swap the onion

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (veal, carrot, turnip, celery, clove, lemon, thyme):

  1. Parsnipfits better
  2. Leekfits better
  3. Shallotfits better
  4. Onionthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against veal, carrot, turnip, celery, clove, lemon, thyme. 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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