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White Consomme, or Veal Stock

A clear veal consommé made by simmering veal, ham, trimmings, and poultry scraps with parsley and green onions.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 7 ingredients
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Why it works: Parsley and onion are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 9% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 25,843 recipes. Both carry 2,4-decadienal, which smells seaweed. The science ↓

White Consomme, or Veal Stock

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Place the veal, ham, meat trimmings, and poultry scraps in a stock pot.

  2. Add a ladleful of common broth and the parsley and green onions.

  3. Stew on a gentle fire until the meat is heated through.

Simmer and finish

  1. Fill the pot with boiling broth and simmer for four hours.

  2. Remove any fat and scum from the stock.

  3. Use the stock for sauces or other dishes.

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. Parsley + oniontop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together25,843 recipes

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

  2. Ham + meattop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,095 recipes

    Shared aroma: 1-octen-3-one (mushroom, metallic).

  3. Veal + hamtop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together3,264 recipes

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

  4. Meat + oniontop 17% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together6,364 recipes

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

  5. Veal + oniontop 17% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together6,841 recipes

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

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

What each ingredient does

Veal knuckle
Contributes gelatin and meaty body that gives the consommé its richness and mouthfeel.
Ham
Adds savory, salty depth to the stock as it simmers.
Parsley
Adds a fresh, herbal aroma to the stock.

The step that matters

Remove any fat and scum from the stock.. Fat and scum rise and cloud the liquid. Skimming them off keeps the stock clear and clean-tasting, which is essential for a consommé.

Swap the parsley

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

  1. Garlicfits better
  2. Celeryfits better
  3. Thymefits better
  4. Parsleythe original

Fit is the average pairing score against veal, ham, meat, onion. 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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