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A clear veal broth made by simmering a knuckle of veal with carrots, celery, turnips, and onions for several hours.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 6 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 ↓

Broths

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Wash the knuckle of veal clean and crack the bones in two or three places.

  2. Place the veal in a saucepan and cover it with cold water.

Make the broth

  1. Bring to a simmer, skimming off the scum that rises to the surface.

  2. Once the scum has stopped rising and the broth is clear, add the carrot, celery, turnips, and onions.

  3. Cover the saucepan and let it simmer gently for 4 to 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. Carrot + celerytop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together10,173 recipes

    Shared aroma: myristicin (spice, warm).

  2. Carrot + turniptop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together8,002 recipes

    Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).

  3. Celery + turniptop 2% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together4,418 recipes

    Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).

  4. Turnip + oniontop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together7,585 recipes

    Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).

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

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

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

What each ingredient does

Veal knuckle
Bones and connective tissue release gelatin and body into the broth as they simmer.
Carrot
Adds sweetness and aromatic depth to the broth as it cooks.
Celery
Contributes savory, aromatic flavor to the broth during the long simmer.
Turnips
Add mild sweetness and earthy flavor as they soften in the broth.
Onions
Release sugars and aromatic compounds that round out the broth's flavor.

The step that matters

Skimming the scum while bringing the broth to a simmer. Scum is coagulated proteins and impurities; removing it as it rises keeps the broth clear and clean-tasting. Adding vegetables only after the scum stops rising lets the broth clarify first.

Swap the onion

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

  1. Parsnipfits better
  2. Leekfits better
  3. Beetrootfits better
  4. Onionthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against veal, carrot, celery, turnip. 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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