Name: White Stock
Ingredients: 6 pounds knuckle of veal, cut into small pieces; poultry trimmings; 4 slices of lean ham

Why it works: Veal and ham are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 15% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 3,264 recipes. Both carry 2,4-decadienal, which smells seaweed. The science ↓

White Stock

Ingredients

6 pounds knuckle of veal, cut into small pieces
poultry trimmings
4 slices of lean ham

Directions

Boil the veal, poultry trimmings, and ham in a large pot.
Follow the directions for making stock as previously outlined.

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.

Veal + hamtop 15% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together3,264 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 collagen and gelatin that give the stock body and a silky mouthfeel.
Poultry trimmings: Add savory depth and extra gelatin from bones and connective tissue.
Lean ham: Contributes salty, smoky flavour that seasons the stock.

“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.