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White Stock

A clear broth made from veal, fowl, poultry or game trimmings, ham, onions, celery, mace, and water.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 8 ingredients
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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

  1. Cut the veal, fowl, and any poultry or game trimmings into pieces.

  2. Place the meat in a stock pot with the roasted onions, celery, and mace, then add just enough water to cover the ingredients.

Simmer the stock

  1. Bring to a boil.

  2. Add 3 more onions and a few blades of mace.

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

    Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).

  2. Ham + meattop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,095 recipes

    Shared aroma: 1-octen-3-one (mushroom, metallic).

  3. Veal + hamtop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together3,264 recipes

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

  4. Onion + macetop 17% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together7,078 recipes

    Shared aroma: eugenol (clove, spicy).

  5. Meat + oniontop 17% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked 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 scrag or knuckle
Releases collagen that gives the stock body and a rich, silky mouthfeel.
Old fowl
Adds deep poultry flavor and collagen that helps thicken the stock.
Lean ham
Contributes savory, salty depth to the overall flavor.
Roasted onions
Add sweetness and toasty aroma from their browned surfaces.
Mace
Adds a warm, aromatic spice note in small amounts.

The step that matters

Keeping the boil gentle. Once the stock reaches a boil, a hard rolling boil churns fat and fine particles into the liquid, making it cloudy and greasy. Holding it at a gentle simmer keeps the stock clear while collagen and flavor slowly extract over the long cook.

Swap the mace

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

  1. Thymefits better
  2. Parsleyfits better
  3. Garlicfits better
  4. 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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