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Soup

White Stock

A clear veal stock made with knuckle, ham, onion, celery, peppercorns, cloves, herbs, salt, and cold water.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 9 ingredients
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Why it works: Celery and clove match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 6% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 4,668 recipes. Both carry gamma-decalactone, which smells peach, creamy. The science ↓

White Stock

Ingredients

Directions

  1. Combine the knuckle of veal, lean ham, onion, celery, peppercorns, cloves, herbs, salt, and cold water in a large pot.

  2. Bring to a boil, then reduce heat and simmer for several hours. Skim off any foam that rises to the surface.

  3. Strain the stock through a fine sieve and discard the solids.

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. Celery + clovetop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together4,668 recipes

    Shared aroma: gamma-decalactone (peach, creamy).

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

    Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).

  3. Onion + clovetop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together16,901 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-nonanone (fruity, floral).

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

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

  5. Veal + oniontop 17% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together6,841 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

Knuckle of veal
Provides gelatin and meat flavor, giving the stock body and richness as it simmers.
Lean ham
Adds savory, salty depth to the stock's flavor.
Onion
Contributes aromatic sweetness and savory background flavor to the stock.
Celery
Adds a fresh, vegetal aroma that rounds out the stock's flavor.

The step that matters

Skim off the foam. Foam is made of coagulated proteins and impurities that rise during simmering. Skimming them keeps the stock clear and prevents bitter or cloudy flavors.

Swap the clove

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

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

Fit is the average pairing score against veal, ham, 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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