Skip to main content
Main

A Clear Broth

A clear broth made from beef, veal bone, and mutton shanks, simmered and cooled.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 4 ingredients
Jump to recipe ↓

Why it works: Beef and mutton are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 10% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 2,373 recipes. Both carry trans-2-nonenal, which smells cardboard, fatty. The science ↓

A Clear Broth

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the broth

  1. Place the beef, veal bone, and mutton shanks in a deep pan.

  2. Cover tightly with a dish or coarse crust.

  3. Bake until the beef is cooked through, adding just enough water to cover the meat.

Cool and store

  1. Once cooled, store in a cool place until needed.

Serve

  1. When ready to serve, add any desired flavoring.

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. Beef + muttontop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,373 recipes

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

  2. Beef + vealtop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together3,784 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2,6-nonadienal (cucumber, green).

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

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

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

What each ingredient does

Beef
Provides the main meaty flavor and body as it cooks slowly in water.
Veal knuckle bone
Releases gelatin and minerals into the liquid, adding body and richness to the broth.
Mutton shanks
Contribute savory, meaty flavor and depth to the broth.

The step that matters

Bake until the beef is cooked through, adding just enough water to cover the meat. Too much water dilutes the broth, while too little lets the meat dry and scorch. Keeping the meat just covered and cooking gently helps the liquid stay clear and well flavored.

“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.

You might also like

Beef, Mutton, or Veal BrothBeef, Mutton, or Veal Broth6 recipesMutton BrothMutton Broth292 recipesRoast BeefRoast Beef211 recipesBeef LoafBeef Loaf175 recipes