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
Cut the veal, ox heel, or calf's head, old fowl, and any poultry or game trimmings into pieces.
Simmer
Add the lean ham, roasted onions, celery, and mace.
Pour in enough water to cover the ingredients.
Bring to a boil and let it simmer for 5 hours.
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.
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Onion + celerytop 7% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together18,518 recipes
Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).
-
Ham + meattop 13% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together1,095 recipes
Shared aroma: 1-octen-3-one (mushroom, metallic).
-
Veal + hamtop 15% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together3,264 recipes
Shared aroma: 2,4-decadienal (seaweed).
-
Onion + macetop 17% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together7,078 recipes
Shared aroma: eugenol (clove, spicy).
-
Meat + oniontop 17% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked 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
- Gives the stock body and rich, gelatinous mouthfeel as it simmers.
- Ox heel or calf's head
- Adds collagen that dissolves into the liquid, thickening the stock and giving it body.
- Old fowl
- Contributes deep poultry flavour and gelatin from its connective tissue during long simmering.
- Lean ham
- Adds savoury, salty depth to the stock.
- Roasted onions
- Add sweetness and roasted, browned aroma to the stock.
The step that matters
Keep the stock at a gentle simmer. A hard boil makes the liquid cloudy and emulsifies fat into it, while a gentle simmer lets collagen and flavour extract slowly and keeps the stock clear.
Swap the mace
How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (veal, ham, meat, onion, celery):
- Thymefits better
- Parsleyfits better
- Garlicfits better
- 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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