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Soup

Knuckle of Veal Soup

A hearty veal soup made with knuckle of veal, bacon or ham, root vegetables, herbs, and thickened with a roux.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 16 ingredients
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Why it works: Clove and allspice match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and 7,874 recipes mention both. Both carry estragole, which smells anise, licorice. The science ↓

Knuckle of Veal Soup

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the base

  1. Layer the bacon or ham slices at the bottom of a soup pot.

  2. Place the knuckle of veal on top.

  3. Break the bone in a few places.

  4. Add the carrots, turnips, celery, onions (with cloves), black peppercorns, allspice, lemon thyme, winter savory, and parsley.

  5. Cover the pot with cold water.

Simmer and strain

  1. Bring to a boil over high heat.

  2. Skim the surface.

  3. Reduce heat.

  4. Simmer gently for about 4 hours until tender.

  5. Remove the meat.

  6. Strain the soup.

  7. Set the strained soup aside to cool.

  8. Once the soup has cooled, remove the fat from the surface.

  9. Decant the liquid into a clean pan.

Thicken and finish

  1. Melt the fat in a small pan.

  2. Mix the melted fat with flour.

  3. Gradually add a ladleful of soup, stirring until smooth.

  4. Combine the thickened mixture with the rest of the soup.

  5. Boil until smooth.

  6. Cut the meat and gristle into small pieces.

  7. Warm the pieces in the soup.

  8. Add catsup to taste for extra flavor.

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 aroma chemistry they share, and how many recipes mention both.

  1. Clove + allspicetop 1% of all pairs
    Aroma overlapstrong
    Mentioned together7,874 recipes

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

  2. Carrot + celerytop 1% of all pairs
    Aroma overlapstrong
    Mentioned together10,173 recipes

    Shared aroma: myristicin (spice, warm).

  3. Carrot + turniptop 1% of all pairs
    Aroma overlapstrong
    Mentioned together8,002 recipes

    Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).

  4. Turnip + celerytop 2% of all pairs
    Aroma overlapmoderate
    Mentioned together4,418 recipes

    Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).

  5. Carrot + clovetop 5% of all pairs
    Aroma overlapstrong
    Mentioned together5,873 recipes

    Shared aroma: cuminaldehyde (Spicy, cumin).

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

What each ingredient does

Veal knuckle
Gives the broth body and gelatin from the bone and connective tissue.
Bacon or ham
Adds smoky, salty savoriness that flavours the broth as it simmers.
Flour
Thickens the soup when cooked with melted fat into a smooth roux.
Fat
Carries the flour so it cooks into a roux without lumps, adding richness.
Onions
Add sweetness and aromatic depth to the broth as they cook down.

The step that matters

Adding the roux to the soup. Flour must be cooked in melted fat and blended with a ladleful of hot soup before combining, or it clumps. Stirring until smooth and then boiling thickens the soup evenly and cooks out the raw flour taste.

Flavor stand-ins for the onion

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

  1. Parsnipbetter flavor fit
  2. Leekbetter flavor fit
  3. Mustardbetter flavor fit
  4. Onionthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against ham, veal, carrot, turnip, celery, clove, allspice. Candidates are from the same food group and used in at least 100 recipes. This compares flavor only: it does not check the job the ingredient does in the dish (bulk, moisture, acidity, structure).

“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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