Why it works: Butter and cream are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 8% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 41,516 recipes. Both carry delta-dodecalactone, which smells sweet, creamy. The science ↓
Veal Hash
Ingredients
Directions
In a pan, melt the butter.
Add the chopped veal, salt, and pepper; cook until heated through.
Stir in the cream or milk.
Dust in flour to thicken the gravy.
Serve hot over toasted and buttered bread.
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.
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Butter + creamtop 8% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together41,516 recipes
Shared aroma: delta-dodecalactone (sweet, creamy).
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Butter + flourtop 12% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together124,287 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
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Walnut + flourtop 12% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together5,873 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
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Walnut + peppertop 13% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together3,039 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).
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Butter + walnuttop 15% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together6,832 recipes
Shared aroma: eucalyptol (eucalyptus, herbal).
Butter and flour barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 124,287 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
- Veal
- Forms the main body of the hash, cooked until heated through.
- Butter
- Adds fat and richness to the pan, carrying flavor through the dish.
- Cream or milk
- Provides liquid and richness that combine with the flour to form the gravy.
- Flour
- Thickens the liquid into a smooth gravy as it cooks.
The step that matters
Dust in flour to thicken the gravy. Flour must be stirred in evenly so it hydrates and thickens the liquid smoothly; added in clumps, it stays lumpy and uneven.
Swap the walnut
How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (veal, butter, pepper, cream, flour):
- Almondfits better
- Chestnutfits about as well
- Pistachiofits about as well
- Walnutthe original
Fit is the average pairing score against veal, butter, pepper, cream, flour. 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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