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Veal Soup

A clear broth made from veal knuckle, simmered and seasoned with white pepper, salt, mace, and lemon juice, thickened with flour and butter.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 8 ingredients
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Why it works: White pepper and mace are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 9% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 1,695 recipes. Both carry myrcene, which smells balsamic, herbaceous. The science ↓

Veal Soup

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the broth

  1. Skin and cut the veal into small pieces.

  2. Place the veal in a stew-pan with the water.

  3. Bring to a boil, skim off any foam, and let it simmer until reduced to 2 quarts.

  4. Strain the broth.

Finish and serve

  1. When ready to serve, season with white pepper, salt, mace, and lemon juice.

  2. Thicken the soup with flour kneaded with butter.

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. White pepper + macetop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,695 recipes

    Shared aroma: myrcene (balsamic, herbaceous).

  2. Flour + buttertop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together124,287 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  3. Lemon + buttertop 16% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together41,227 recipes

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

  4. White pepper + lemontop 16% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together1,658 recipes

    Shared aroma: eucalyptol (eucalyptus, herbal).

  5. Veal + lemontop 17% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together4,580 recipes

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

Flour and butter barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 124,287 recipes: they work on texture and structure more than aroma.

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 flavor into the water, giving the broth body and richness.
Flour
Kneaded with butter, it thickens the soup by swelling in the hot liquid.
Butter
Combined with flour, it coats the flour so it blends smoothly and adds richness.
Lemon juice
Adds acidity that brightens the flavor of the rich broth.

The step that matters

Thicken the soup with flour kneaded with butter. Flour must be fully worked into the butter and whisked into simmering soup so it dissolves without lumps; added as dry flour it clumps and stays grainy.

Swap the white pepper

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

  1. Nutmegfits better
  2. Parsleyfits better
  3. Marjoramfits better
  4. White pepperthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against veal, mace, lemon, flour, 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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