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Calves' -Feet Broth

A broth made by boiling calves' feet, then adding jelly, sweet wine, sugar, nutmeg, egg yolk, butter, and lemon zest.

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 ↓

Calves' -Feet Broth

Ingredients

Directions

Make the broth

  1. Boil the calves' feet in 3 quarts of water until reduced by half.

  2. Strain the broth and set aside.

  3. Remove the fat from the broth.

Finish the custard

  1. In a saucepan, combine the jelly, sweet wine, sugar, and nutmeg; heat until ready to boil.

  2. Gradually mix a small amount of the hot mixture into the yolk of the egg.

  3. Stir in the butter until combined, but do not let it boil.

  4. Add the lemon zest and mix well.

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

Calves' feet
Release gelatin into the water, giving the broth body and a jelly-like set.
Egg yolk
Thickens the warm mixture into a smooth, rich custard.
Jelly
Adds sweetness and body while helping the broth set.
Butter
Adds richness and a smooth, glossy mouthfeel.
Sweet wine
Adds sweetness and fruity aroma to the mixture.

The step that matters

Stir in the egg yolk gradually and keep the mixture from boiling. Adding hot liquid to the yolk slowly tempers it so it does not scramble. Letting the mixture boil after the yolk is added can curdle the egg and leave the custard grainy.

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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