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Soup

White Stock

A clear veal stock made by simmering veal knuckle, beef trimmings, vegetables, and seasonings for six hours.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 9 ingredients
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Why it works: Carrot and celery match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 10,173 recipes. Both carry myristicin, which smells spice, warm. The science ↓

White Stock

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Cut the meat into small pieces and chop the bones, removing the marrow.

  2. Place the meat and bones in a stock pot with the salt and water.

Simmer

  1. Bring to a boil, skim off any foam, and add the carrots, turnips, onions, celery, and peppercorns.

  2. Simmer for 6 hours.

Strain and chill

  1. Strain through a fine sieve and let it cool overnight.

  2. Remove the fat from the top before using.

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

    Shared aroma: myristicin (spice, warm).

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

    Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).

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

    Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).

  4. Turnip + oniontop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together7,585 recipes

    Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).

  5. Carrot + oniontop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together21,601 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).

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

What each ingredient does

Knuckle of veal
Bones and connective tissue release gelatin, giving the stock body and a silky mouthfeel.
Onions
Their sugars and aromatic compounds deepen the stock's flavour as they cook slowly.
Carrots
Natural sugars add subtle sweetness that balances the savoury meat and bones.
Celery
Adds savoury, herbal aroma that rounds out the flavour of the stock.

The step that matters

Skim off the foam after boiling. Foam carries coagulated proteins and impurities that can cloud the stock and taste bitter if left in. Skimming early keeps the stock clear and clean-flavoured.

Swap the onion

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

  1. Leekfits better
  2. Parsnipfits better
  3. Onionthe original
  4. Spinachfits about as well

Fit is the average pairing score against veal, beef, carrot, turnip, 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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