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Good White Stock

A clear stock made by simmering veal shin, onion, mace, celery, fowl or rabbit, and poultry bones for four hours.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 7 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 ↓

Good White Stock

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Cut the meat into small pieces and break up the bones.

Make the stock

  1. Place the meat and bones in a pan with the cold water and bring gently to a boil. Skim thoroughly.

  2. Add the onion, mace, fowl or rabbit, celery, and poultry bones.

  3. Simmer slowly for four hours.

  4. Pour through a fine sieve.

  5. Let cool, then remove the fat.

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. Onion + rabbittop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,292 recipes

    Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).

  3. Rabbit + celerytop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together240 recipes

    Shared aroma: sabinene (woody, terpenic).

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

    Shared aroma: eugenol (clove, spicy).

  5. Veal + rabbittop 17% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together441 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-pentylpyridine (fat).

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

What each ingredient does

Shin of veal
Provides gelatin and meaty flavour, giving the stock body as it simmers.
Bones
Release gelatin and minerals during long simmering, adding body and depth to the stock.
Old fowl or rabbit
Adds deep, savoury meat flavour to the stock.
Celery
Contributes aromatic, vegetal flavour to the stock.
Onion
Adds sweet, aromatic flavour that rounds out the stock.

The step that matters

Skim thoroughly. Skimming removes coagulated proteins and impurities that rise as the water heats. Removing them early keeps the stock clear and free of off flavours.

Swap the mace

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

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

Fit is the average pairing score against veal, onion, rabbit, 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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