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Veal

A clear veal broth made with lettuce and leek, simmered for about three hours.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 6 ingredients
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Why it works: Lettuce and chervil match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 396 recipes. Both carry coumarin, which smells sweet, hay. The science ↓

Veal

Ingredients

Directions

  1. Place the veal in a soup kettle with cold water and salt.

  2. Set over medium heat and skim off any scum that forms.

  3. Once skimmed, add the lettuce and leek.

  4. Simmer for about 3 hours.

  5. Strain the broth and it's ready to use.

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. Lettuce + cherviltop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together396 recipes

    Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).

  2. Leek + cherviltop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together148 recipes

    Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).

  3. Lettuce + leektop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together217 recipes

    Shared aroma: trans-2-hexenal (green, leafy).

  4. Veal + leektop 17% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together334 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl butyrate (apple, fruity).

  5. Veal + lettucetop 27% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together383 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-methylbutyraldehyde (malty, chocolate).

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

What each ingredient does

Veal
Gives the broth its body and rich meaty flavor as it simmers slowly in water.
Leek
Adds a mild, sweet onion-like aroma to the broth.
Lettuce
Contributes gentle vegetable sweetness and a light, clean background flavor to the broth.

The step that matters

Skimming the scum. Scum is coagulated protein and impurities that rise as the water heats. Removing it before it breaks back into the liquid keeps the broth clear and clean-tasting.

“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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