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Calves' Feet Broth

A clear broth made by boiling calves' feet, thickened with jelly, sweet wine, sugar, nutmeg, and egg yolk, finished with butter and lemon peel.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 9 ingredients
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Why it works: Nutmeg and lemon match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 5% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 11,318 recipes. Both carry beta-phellandrene, which smells minty, terpene. The science ↓

Calves' Feet Broth

Ingredients

Directions

Make the broth

  1. Boil the calves' feet in 3 quarts of water until reduced by half.

  2. Strain the broth and set it aside.

  3. When ready to use, remove the fat from the broth.

Finish the sauce

  1. In a saucepan, combine the jelly, sweet wine, sugar, and nutmeg; heat until just below boiling.

  2. Take a small amount of the hot mixture and gradually beat it into the egg yolk.

  3. Add the butter and stir everything together without letting it boil.

  4. Grate a bit of fresh lemon peel into the mixture.

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. Nutmeg + lemontop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together11,318 recipes

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

  2. Wine + lemontop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together6,157 recipes

    Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).

  3. Wine + buttertop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together8,645 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-furfurylthiol (coffee, roasted).

  4. Nutmeg + buttertop 16% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together24,377 recipes

    Shared aroma: eucalyptol (eucalyptus, herbal).

  5. Butter + lemontop 16% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together41,227 recipes

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

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

What each ingredient does

Calves' feet
Release gelatin into the water, giving the broth body and a jelly-like texture.
Egg yolk
Thickens the warm mixture and adds richness when gently heated and beaten in.
Butter
Adds fat for a smooth, rich mouthfeel in the finished mixture.
Jelly
Adds sweetness and body to the mixture.
Sweet wine
Adds sweetness and aroma to the mixture.

The step that matters

Beating the hot mixture into the egg yolk, then not letting it boil. Adding hot liquid slowly tempers the yolk so it does not scramble. Boiling after the yolk is added can curdle the egg and ruin the smooth, thickened texture.

Swap the nutmeg

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (wine, sugar, egg, butter, lemon):

  1. Cinnamonfits better
  2. Tarragonfits about as well
  3. Nutmegthe original
  4. Parsleyfits about as well

Fit is the average pairing score against wine, sugar, egg, butter, 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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