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Calfs-foot Broth

A broth made by simmering a calf's foot with milk, water, salt, and sugar.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 5 ingredients
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Why it works: Milk and sugar are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 18% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 77,875 recipes. Both carry 2-nonenal, which smells fatty, green. The science ↓

Calfs-foot Broth

Oven, in the book's wordsA slow oven

Ingredients

Directions

The book says “a slow oven”. The 300°F (150°C) in the steps is the modern equivalent, not the book's own figure.

Prepare

  1. Split the calf's foot and place it in a fire-proof jar with all ingredients.

Bake

  1. Tie down the jar and bake in a slow oven at 300°F (150°C) for eight hours.

Strain and chill

  1. Strain the mixture through a sieve into a basin and let it cool.

  2. Remove the fat from the top when cold.

Serve

  1. Heat the broth when required for 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. Milk + sugartop 18% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together77,875 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).

Milk and sugar barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 77,875 recipes: they work on texture and structure more than aroma.

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

What each ingredient does

Calf's foot
Releases gelatin into the liquid, giving the broth body and a jelly-like set when cold.
New milk
Adds richness and softness, rounding out the flavour of the long-simmered broth.
Sugar
Adds sweetness and helps balance the savoury, mineral taste of the broth.

The step that matters

Remove the fat from the top when cold. Fat rises and solidifies on top as the broth cools. Skimming it while cold leaves a cleaner, lighter broth, because warm fat would otherwise remain mixed into the liquid.

“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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