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Soup

Beef, Mutton, and Veal Broth

A broth made from lean beef, veal knuckle, mutton scrag, peppercorns, salt, and water, simmered for hours.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 6 ingredients
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Why it works: Beef and mutton are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 10% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 2,373 recipes. Both carry trans-2-nonenal, which smells cardboard, fatty. The science ↓

Beef, Mutton, and Veal Broth

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Chop the meat and bones into small pieces.

  2. Put the meat, bones, peppercorns, salt, and water into a stewpan.

Cook and finish

  1. Cook gently for 5 hours, skimming occasionally.

  2. Strain the broth and let it cool to remove the fat easily.

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. Beef + muttontop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,373 recipes

    Shared aroma: trans-2-nonenal (cardboard, fatty).

  2. Beef + vealtop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together3,784 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2,6-nonadienal (cucumber, green).

  3. Veal + muttontop 14% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together1,394 recipes

    Shared aroma: 1-nonanal (fatty, waxy).

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

What each ingredient does

Gravy beef
Contributes meaty flavour and body to the broth as its collagen and juices release during long simmering.
Knuckle of veal
Adds gelatin-rich bone and connective tissue that give the broth body and a silky mouthfeel.
Scrag of mutton
Supplies deeper, richer meat flavour that builds as the broth simmers slowly.

The step that matters

Cook gently and skim occasionally. A gentle simmer keeps the broth clear, while a hard boil emulsifies fat and proteins into it, making it cloudy and greasy. Skimming removes the foam and surface fat that would otherwise spoil the flavour and clarity.

“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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