Name: Veal Broth
Ingredients: 1 small knuckle of veal; 3 quarts water; 2 ounces rice; salt to taste; 1 blade of mace

Why it works: Rice and mace work together. They rank in the top 17% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 932 recipes. Both carry alpha-pinene, which smells pine, turpentine. The science ↓

Veal Broth

Ingredients

Directions

Combine the knuckle of veal and water in a large pot.
Add the rice, salt, and mace.
Bring to a boil, then reduce heat and simmer for 3 hours.
Remove from heat and serve hot.

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.

Rice + macetop 17% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together932 recipes

Shared aroma: alpha-pinene (pine, turpentine).
Veal + macetop 18% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together3,761 recipes

Shared aroma: alpha-pinene (pine, turpentine).
Veal + ricetop 19% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together1,119 recipes

Shared aroma: 2,4-nonadienal (fatty, green).

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

What each ingredient does

Veal knuckle: Releases gelatin and flavor into the water, giving the broth body and savory depth.
Rice: Thickens the broth slightly as its starch softens during the long simmer.