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White Stock

Veal and ham stock made by simmering veal knuckle, poultry trimmings, ham, carrot, onion, celery, peppercorns, salt, mace, butter, and water for 5 hours.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 11 ingredients
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Why it works: Carrot and celery match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 10,173 recipes. Both carry myristicin, which smells spice, warm. The science ↓

White Stock

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Cut the veal into pieces and place it in a large stewpan rubbed with butter.

  2. Add the poultry trimmings and ham, then moisten with ½ cup of water and simmer until the gravy begins to flow.

Simmer and strain

  1. Add 4 quarts of water along with the remaining ingredients and simmer for 5 hours.

  2. Skim off any foam and strain the stock through a fine sieve.

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. Carrot + celerytop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together10,173 recipes

    Shared aroma: myristicin (spice, warm).

  2. Carrot + oniontop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together21,601 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).

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

    Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).

  4. Carrot + macetop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,592 recipes

    Shared aroma: myristicin (spice, warm).

  5. Onion + buttertop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together42,912 recipes

    Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).

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

What each ingredient does

Knuckle of veal
Releases gelatin and collagen as it simmers, giving the stock body and a silky mouthfeel.
Poultry trimmings
Add gelatin-rich bones and skin that deepen the stock's savory flavor and body.
Ham
Adds savory, salty depth to the stock's overall flavor.
Onions
Contribute sweetness and savory aroma as they cook down in the stock.
Celery
Adds aromatic, vegetal flavor that rounds out the stock.

The step that matters

Simmer until the gravy begins to flow. Starting with a small amount of water and gently simmering lets the veal and trimmings release their juices and gelatin before the full volume of water is added. Keeping the heat low prevents the stock from turning cloudy.

Swap the mace

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

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

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