Name: A Very Nourishing Veal Broth
Ingredients: 1 knuckle of veal; 1 old fowl; 4 shank bones of mutton; 3 blades of mace; 10 peppercorns; 1 onion; 1 large piece of bread; 3 quarts of water; coarse sea salt to taste

Why it works: Mutton and bread are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 12% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 1,488 recipes. Both carry delta-decalactone, which smells sweet, creamy. The science ↓

A Very Nourishing Veal Broth

Ingredients

Directions

Place the knuckle of veal, old fowl, shank bones, mace, peppercorns, onion, bread, and water into a stew pot.
Bring to a boil, then reduce heat and simmer for 4 hours.
Skim off any fat, strain the broth, and season with salt as desired.

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.

Mutton + breadtop 12% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together1,488 recipes

Shared aroma: delta-decalactone (sweet, creamy).
Veal + muttontop 14% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together1,394 recipes

Shared aroma: 1-nonanal (fatty, waxy).
Onion + breadtop 15% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together8,676 recipes

Shared aroma: 2,4-decadienal (seaweed).
Mace + oniontop 17% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together7,078 recipes

Shared aroma: eugenol (clove, spicy).
Veal + breadtop 17% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together3,056 recipes

Shared aroma: cis-3-hexenol (green, grassy).

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

What each ingredient does

Knuckle of veal: Releases gelatin and body into the water during long simmering, giving the broth richness.
Old fowl: Adds deep meat flavor and additional collagen to the broth during the long simmer.
Shank bones of mutton: Contribute gelatin and savory depth as they simmer slowly in the liquid.
Onion: Adds aromatic sweetness and savory background flavor as it cooks into the broth.

The step that matters

Simmer gently rather than boiling. After the initial boil, keeping the liquid at a gentle simmer for 4 hours extracts collagen and flavor slowly. A hard boil makes the broth cloudy and can emulsify fat into it, so a clear, well-flavored result depends on low, steady heat.

Swap the mace

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

Garlicfits better
Celeryfits better
Pepperfits better
Macethe original

Fit is the average pairing score against veal, mutton, onion, bread. 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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A Very Nourishing Veal Broth