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White Stock

A clear broth made from veal knuckle, poultry bones, and vegetables, simmered gently to avoid coloring.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 9 ingredients
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Why it works: Celery and carrot 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 ↓

White Stock

Ingredients

Directions

  1. Combine veal, poultry bones, water, celery, carrot, turnip, onion, peppercorns, and herbs in a large pot.

  2. Bring to a boil, then reduce heat and simmer gently to avoid coloring the stock.

  3. If using for thick soups, allow the stock to boil instead of just simmering.

  4. Use this stock for white soups and sauces.

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. Celery + carrottop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together10,173 recipes

    Shared aroma: myristicin (spice, warm).

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

    Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).

  3. Celery + turniptop 2% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together4,418 recipes

    Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).

  4. Turnip + oniontop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together7,585 recipes

    Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).

  5. Carrot + oniontop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together21,601 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).

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

What each ingredient does

Veal knuckle
Releases gelatin and body into the water, giving the stock richness and a silky mouthfeel.
Poultry bones
Add gelatin and savory flavor to the stock without the color that browning would bring.
Celery
Contributes aromatic flavor that builds the stock's background savoriness.
Onion
Adds sweet, aromatic depth to the stock as it simmers.

The step that matters

Simmer gently, do not boil. A rolling boil emulsifies fats into the liquid and can cloud the stock, while gentle simmering keeps it clear and keeps the color pale, which matters for white soups and sauces.

Swap the onion

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

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

Fit is the average pairing score against veal, meat, celery, carrot, turnip. 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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