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Stock Sauces

A sauce made by simmering ham, veal, rabbits, hens, and vegetables in grand stock, then reducing to a glaze.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 11 ingredients
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Why it works: Carrot and parsley match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 8,053 recipes. Both carry 2,4-decadienal, which smells seaweed. The science ↓

Stock Sauces

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the pans

  1. Grease the bottom of two stew pans with fresh butter.

  2. Layer sliced ham and veal in each pan.

  3. In one pan, add whole rabbits; in the other, add hens.

  4. Pour enough grand stock into each pan to cover the veal.

Reduce the glaze

  1. Cover the pans and boil sharply until the broth reduces to a glaze.

  2. Reduce heat by adding charcoal ashes.

  3. Return the pans to the fire.

  4. Add 1 pound of glaze to the brown sauce.

  5. Reduce the sauce with the stock.

  6. When the white sauce reaches a pale glaze, fill it with grand stock.

Finish and simmer

  1. Garnish with carrot, onion, cloves, mace, and the herb bouquet.

  2. Boil.

  3. Skim well.

  4. Simmer gently on the side of the stove.

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 + parsleytop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together8,053 recipes

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

  2. Carrot + clovetop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together5,873 recipes

    Shared aroma: cuminaldehyde (Spicy, cumin).

  3. Carrot + oniontop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together21,601 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).

  4. Clove + parsleytop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together6,768 recipes

    Shared aroma: cuminaldehyde (Spicy, cumin).

  5. Clove + macetop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together8,400 recipes

    Shared aroma: methyleugenol (clove, spice).

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

What each ingredient does

Lean ham
Adds savoury meat flavour to the broth as it cooks slowly in the stock.
Veal
Contributes gelatin and body, giving the reduced stock a richer texture.
Wild rabbits
Adds deep meaty flavour to the stock as it reduces.
Hens
Adds meaty flavour and body to the stock as it reduces.
Glaze
Concentrates flavour and gives the sauce a thick, glossy body.

The step that matters

Reduce the broth to a glaze. Boiling sharply until the broth becomes a glaze concentrates flavour and gelatin. If it is under-reduced the sauce stays thin; if it is over-reduced or scorched it turns bitter and sticks to the pan.

Swap the mace

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (ham, veal, rabbit, carrot, onion, clove, parsley):

  1. Thymefits better
  2. Celeryfits better
  3. Marjoramfits better
  4. Macethe original

Fit is the average pairing score against ham, veal, rabbit, carrot, onion, clove, parsley. 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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