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Knuckle of Veal, or Shin or Leg of Beef, Soup

A hearty soup made with knuckle of veal, bacon, root vegetables, and herbs, simmered for several hours.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 13 ingredients
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Why it works: Clove and allspice match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 7,874 recipes. Both carry estragole, which smells anise, licorice. The science ↓

Knuckle of Veal, or Shin or Leg of Beef, Soup

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Cut the bacon into ½ inch thick slices and lay it at the bottom of a soup kettle or deep stew pan.

  2. Place the knuckle of veal on top, chopping the bone in two or three places.

  3. Add the carrots, turnips, celery, onions (with cloves stuck in one), black peppercorns, allspice, lemon-thyme, winter savory, and parsley.

Simmer

  1. Cover the meat with cold water and set it over high heat until it boils.

  2. Skim the surface, then reduce the heat and let it simmer gently for about four hours until tender.

Strain and cool

  1. Remove the bacon and veal, strain the soup, and cool it in a safe place until needed.

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. Clove + allspicetop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together7,874 recipes

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

  2. Carrot + celerytop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together10,173 recipes

    Shared aroma: myristicin (spice, warm).

  3. Carrot + turniptop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together8,002 recipes

    Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).

  4. Turnip + celerytop 2% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together4,418 recipes

    Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).

  5. Celery + lemontop 3% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together3,467 recipes

    Shared aroma: beta-phellandrene (minty, terpene).

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

What each ingredient does

Veal knuckle
Releases gelatin and meat flavour into the broth, giving body and richness over long simmering.
Bacon
Adds smoky, salty fat that flavours the broth as it renders during cooking.
Onions
Provide sweetness and savoury depth as they soften and release their sugars into the soup.
Carrots
Add natural sweetness and body to the broth as they cook down.

The step that matters

Skim the surface before simmering. Bringing the water to a boil releases proteins and fat as foam. Skimming removes these impurities, so the broth stays clearer and cleaner-tasting. Reducing the heat then keeps the liquid at a gentle simmer, which prevents cloudiness from rolling boils.

Swap the onion

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (veal, carrot, turnip, celery, clove, allspice, lemon):

  1. Parsnipfits better
  2. Leekfits better
  3. Arrowrootfits better
  4. Onionthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against veal, carrot, turnip, celery, clove, allspice, lemon. 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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