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A Very Nourishing Veal Broth

A nourishing 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 Very Nourishing Veal Broth

Ingredients

Directions

  1. Place the knuckle of veal, old fowl, shank bones, mace, peppercorns, onion, bread, and water into a stew pot.

  2. Cover and bring to a boil, then reduce heat to a simmer.

  3. Simmer for four hours, skimming off any foam that rises to the top.

  4. Strain the broth and remove the fat 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. Mutton + breadtop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,488 recipes

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

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

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

  3. Onion + breadtop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together8,676 recipes

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

  4. Mace + oniontop 17% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together7,078 recipes

    Shared aroma: eugenol (clove, spicy).

  5. Veal + breadtop 17% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together3,056 recipes

    Shared aroma: cis-3-hexenol (green, grassy).

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

What each ingredient does

Veal knuckle
Gives the broth its body and rich, savory meat flavor as it simmers.
Old fowl
Adds deep poultry flavor and gelatin to the broth as it cooks slowly.
Shank bones of mutton
Release collagen and marrow flavor, adding body and richness to the broth.
Bread
Helps thicken the broth slightly and softens as it cooks.

The step that matters

Skimming off foam during the simmer. Foam carries coagulated proteins and impurities that can cloud the broth and give it an off taste. Skimming as it rises keeps the broth clear and clean-flavored. Keep the liquid at a gentle simmer rather than a hard boil so the fat and foam stay manageable.

Swap the mace

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

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

Fit is the average pairing score against veal, 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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