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White Stock

A clear stock made from veal, fowl, poultry or game trimmings, ham, onions, celery, mace, and water.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 8 ingredients
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Why it works: Onion and celery are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 7% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 18,518 recipes. Both carry guaiacol, which smells smoky, sweet. The science ↓

White Stock

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Cut the veal, fowl, and any poultry or game trimmings into pieces.

  2. Place the meat in a stock pot with the roasted onions, celery, and mace.

Simmer

  1. Add enough water to cover the ingredients and bring to a boil.

  2. Add 3 more onions and a few blades of mace, then boil for 5 hours.

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. Onion + celerytop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together18,518 recipes

    Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).

  2. Ham + meattop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,095 recipes

    Shared aroma: 1-octen-3-one (mushroom, metallic).

  3. Veal + hamtop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together3,264 recipes

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

  4. Onion + macetop 17% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together7,078 recipes

    Shared aroma: eugenol (clove, spicy).

  5. Meat + oniontop 17% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together6,364 recipes

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

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

What each ingredient does

Veal scrag or knuckle
Releases collagen and gelatin during long cooking, giving the stock body and a rich mouthfeel.
Old fowl
Adds deep poultry flavour and gelatin, helping the stock set when chilled.
Roasted onions
Contribute sweetness and roasted, browned depth of flavour to the stock.
Celery
Adds a fresh, savoury aroma that rounds out the stock's background flavour.
Lean ham
Lends salty, savoury meatiness that deepens the overall flavour of the stock.

The step that matters

Boiling for 5 hours. A long, vigorous boil keeps fat and impurities emulsified into the liquid, which clouds the stock. Skimming regularly while it cooks keeps the finished stock clearer and cleaner-tasting.

Swap the mace

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (veal, ham, meat, onion, celery):

  1. Thymefits better
  2. Parsleyfits better
  3. Garlicfits better
  4. Macethe original

Fit is the average pairing score against veal, ham, meat, onion, celery. 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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