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White Stock

A clear veal stock made by simmering knuckle of veal, onion, beet, celery, bay leaf, peppercorns, and salt in cold water.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 8 ingredients
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Why it works: Onion and celery are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 7% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 18,518 recipes. Both carry guaiacol, which smells smoky, sweet. The science ↓

White Stock

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Remove the meat from the bone and cut it into small pieces.

  2. Put the meat and bone into a kettle, add the cold water and prepared vegetables.

Simmer and strain

  1. Bring the mixture slowly to a boil and skim off any foam.

  2. Simmer for five hours.

  3. Strain the stock twice through several layers of cheesecloth until clear.

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. Onion + celerytop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together18,518 recipes

    Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).

  2. Veal + oniontop 17% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together6,841 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2,4-decadienal (seaweed).

  3. Veal + celerytop 18% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together2,336 recipes

    Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).

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

What each ingredient does

Veal knuckle
Bones and connective tissue release gelatin during long simmering, giving the stock body and mouthfeel.
Onion
Adds aromatic sweetness and depth to the stock's flavour base.
Celery
Contributes aromatic, savoury flavour to the simmering liquid.

The step that matters

Bring to a boil slowly and skim the foam. Heating slowly and skimming foam removes impurities that would otherwise cloud the stock. A hard, rolling boil keeps fat and particles churning in the liquid, so the stock stays cloudy rather than clear.

Swap the celery

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (veal, onion):

  1. Garlicfits better
  2. Celerythe original
  3. Capersfits about as well
  4. Thymefits about as well

Fit is the average pairing score against veal, onion. 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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