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Calfs-feet Broth

A broth made by boiling calf's feet, thickened with jelly, sweet wine, sugar, nutmeg, 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 ↓

Calfs-feet Broth

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the broth

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

  2. Strain the broth and set it aside.

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

Make the broth

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

  2. Gradually mix a little of the hot broth into the yolk of the egg.

  3. Add the butter and stir everything together without boiling.

  4. Grate fresh lemon peel into the mixture before serving.

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 in long simmering to release gelatin, giving the broth body and a jelly-like set.
Jelly
Adds sweetness and body, and helps the finished broth set.
Egg yolk
Thickens the warm mixture into a smooth, rich custard-like texture when heated gently.
Butter
Adds fat, richness and a smooth, silky mouthfeel.
Sweet wine
Adds sweetness and a fruity aroma to the warm mixture.

The step that matters

Add the egg yolk without boiling. Egg yolk thickens as it heats, but if the mixture boils or the yolk is added to hot liquid too quickly it can scramble. Tempering with a little hot broth first and stirring over gentle heat keeps it 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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