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Knuckle of Veal, or Shin or Leg of Beef, Soup

A hearty soup made with knuckle of veal or beef, bacon, root vegetables, onions, herbs, and peppercorns.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 13 ingredients
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Why it works: Carrot and celery 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 ↓

Knuckle of Veal, or Shin or Leg of Beef, Soup

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Cut the bacon into ½ inch thick slices and lay them at the bottom of a soup kettle.

  2. Place the knuckle of veal on top, chopping the bone in 2-3 places.

  3. Add the chopped carrots, turnips, celery, and onions with cloves stuck in one onion.

  4. Add the black and Jamaica peppercorns, and the bundles of herbs.

Simmer

  1. Cover the meat with cold water and bring to a boil over high heat.

  2. Skim the surface, then reduce heat and let it simmer gently for about 4 hours until tender.

Strain and serve

  1. Remove the bacon and veal, strain the soup, and cool it until needed.

  2. Skim off the fat from the surface before serving.

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. Carrot + celerytop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together10,173 recipes

    Shared aroma: myristicin (spice, warm).

  2. Lemon + thymetop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together3,973 recipes

    Shared aroma: beta-phellandrene (minty, terpene).

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

    Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).

  4. Clove + thymetop 2% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together4,108 recipes

    Shared aroma: cuminaldehyde (Spicy, cumin).

  5. Turnip + celerytop 2% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together4,418 recipes

    Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).

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

What each ingredient does

Knuckle of veal
Gives the soup body and rich flavour as its collagen and marrow break down during long simmering.
Bacon
Adds smoky, salty fat that flavours the broth from the bottom of the kettle.
Onions
Contribute sweetness and savoury depth to the stock as they cook down.
Carrots
Add natural sweetness and aromatic body to the broth.

The step that matters

Skim the surface after bringing to a boil. Foam and fat rising at the start can cloud the broth and taste greasy. Skimming removes these impurities, and gentle simmering keeps the broth clear rather than churning it.

Swap the onion

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

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

Fit is the average pairing score against veal, carrot, turnip, celery, clove, lemon, thyme. 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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