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Beef, Mutton and Veal Broth

A clear broth made from beef, mutton, veal, peppercorns, salt, and water, simmered for hours.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 6 ingredients
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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 ↓

Beef, Mutton and Veal Broth

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Chop the meat and bones into small pieces.

Make the broth

  1. Put the meat, bones, peppercorns, salt, and water into a stewpan.

  2. Cook gently for 5 hours, skimming occasionally.

Strain and finish

  1. Strain the broth and let it cool.

  2. Remove the fat once it has solidified.

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

Lean gravy beef
Provides meaty flavour and gelatin-rich body as it simmers slowly.
Knuckle of veal
Its bones and connective tissue release gelatin, giving the broth body and a silky mouthfeel.
Scrag of mutton
Adds deeper, richer meat flavour to the broth during long, gentle simmering.

The step that matters

Cook gently for 5 hours, skimming occasionally. A gentle simmer keeps the broth clear, while a hard boil emulsifies fat and impurities into it. Skimming removes the foam that rises, so the finished broth stays clean and clear.

“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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