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Calves' Feet Broth

A clear broth made from boiled calves' feet, sweetened with jelly, wine, sugar, and nutmeg, finished with egg yolk, butter, and lemon peel.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 9 ingredients
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Why it works: Nutmeg and lemon match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 5% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 11,318 recipes. Both carry beta-phellandrene, which smells minty, terpene. The science ↓

Calves' Feet Broth

Ingredients

Directions

Make the broth

  1. Boil the calves' feet in 3 quarts of water until reduced by half.

  2. Strain the broth and set it aside.

  3. Remove the fat from the broth.

Combine and finish

  1. In a saucepan, combine the jelly, sweet wine, sugar, and nutmeg; heat until ready to boil.

  2. Gradually mix a little of the hot broth into the yolk of the egg.

  3. Stir in the butter and combine everything, but do not let it boil.

  4. Grate fresh lemon peel into the mixture.

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. Nutmeg + lemontop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together11,318 recipes

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

  2. Tea + lemontop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together610 recipes

    Shared aroma: 3-hexenal (apple, fruity).

  3. Wine + lemontop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together6,157 recipes

    Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).

  4. Wine + buttertop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together8,645 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-furfurylthiol (coffee, roasted).

  5. Tea + nutmegtop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together202 recipes

    Shared aroma: 4'-methylacetophenone (bitter almond).

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

What each ingredient does

Egg yolk
Thickens the mixture and adds richness when gently heated with the broth.
Butter
Adds fat and a smooth, rich mouthfeel to the finished broth.
Jelly
Adds sweetness and body, and helps the broth set as it cools.
Calves' feet
Release gelatin during long simmering, giving the broth its body.

The step that matters

Adding the hot broth to the egg yolk. Pouring hot liquid straight into the yolk can scramble it. Adding the broth a little at a time warms the yolk gradually so it blends smoothly. Keeping the mixture below boiling prevents the egg from curdling.

Swap the nutmeg

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (tea, wine, sugar, egg, butter, lemon):

  1. Cinnamonfits better
  2. Nutmegthe original
  3. Gingerfits about as well
  4. Thymefits about as well

Fit is the average pairing score against tea, wine, sugar, egg, butter, lemon. 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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