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Blanc to Boil Chickens in

A dish of veal and bacon simmered in butter and water, then strained and used to boil chicken.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 8 ingredients
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Why it works: Clove and shallot match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 5% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 1,677 recipes. Both carry eucalyptol, which smells eucalyptus, herbal. The science ↓

Blanc to Boil Chickens in

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the stew

  1. In a stewpan, combine veal and bacon pieces with butter.

  2. Do not allow the meat to brown; keep it white.

  3. Pour boiling water over the meat.

  4. Add the clove, bay leaf, sweet herbs, and shallot.

  5. Stew until sufficiently cooked, then strain through a fine sieve over the chicken.

Simmer and serve

  1. Simmer the chicken in the strained liquid for 30 minutes.

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. Clove + shallottop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together1,677 recipes

    Shared aroma: eucalyptol (eucalyptus, herbal).

  2. Butter + shallottop 17% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together4,426 recipes

    Shared aroma: eucalyptol (eucalyptus, herbal).

  3. Veal + shallottop 19% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together920 recipes

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

  4. Veal + buttertop 23% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together9,381 recipes

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

  5. Butter + clovetop 23% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together14,045 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl octanoate (fruity, wine).

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

What each ingredient does

Veal
Provides the main meat flavour and body to the stock.
Bacon fat
Adds richness and carries flavour through the stewing liquid.
Butter
Adds richness and moisture while the meat cooks gently without browning.
Shallot
Adds a mild aromatic sweetness to the broth.

The step that matters

Keep the meat white. Browning would create darker colour and roasted flavours, changing the clean, pale character of a white boiled dish. Keeping the heat gentle and the meat unbrowned preserves that appearance and taste.

Swap the clove

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (veal, butter, shallot):

  1. Capersfits better
  2. Tarragonfits better
  3. Parsleyfits better
  4. Clovethe original

Fit is the average pairing score against veal, butter, shallot. 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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