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French Stew of Veal

A French stew of veal, eggs, allspice, mace, and wine, simmered in a buttery broth.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 10 ingredients
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Why it works: Allspice and pepper match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 5% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 6,395 recipes. Both carry estragole, which smells anise, licorice. The science ↓

French Stew of Veal

Ingredients

Directions

Boil the veal

  1. Boil the knuckle of veal in enough water to cover it, adding a little salt.

  2. Once tender, pour off the water and save it.

Make the stew

  1. Cut the veal into small pieces and place it in a pan with the reserved water.

  2. Add the chopped eggs, crushed allspice, butter, mace, and pepper.

  3. Stir the flour smoothly in a little water and pour it into the pan.

  4. Set over the fire and let it boil for 2-3 minutes.

  5. Pour in the wine and serve hot.

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. Allspice + peppertop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together6,395 recipes

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

  2. Allspice + macetop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together3,189 recipes

    Shared aroma: methyleugenol (clove, spice).

  3. Butter + flourtop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together124,287 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  4. Allspice + flourtop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together4,302 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  5. Butter + winetop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together8,645 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-furfurylthiol (coffee, roasted).

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

Flour
Thickens the cooking liquid into a smooth, lightly body-filled stew.
Butter
Adds richness and a silky mouthfeel to the stew.
Hard-boiled eggs
Add body and a creamy texture when finely chopped into the stew.
Wine
Adds acidity and depth of flavour to the stew.

The step that matters

Stir the flour smoothly in a little water. Flour clumps if added dry or unevenly, and lumps stay visible in the stew. Mixing it into a small amount of cold liquid first lets the starch disperse so it thickens evenly when heated.

Swap the mace

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (veal, egg, allspice, butter, pepper, flour, wine):

  1. Nutmegfits better
  2. Thymefits better
  3. Parsleyfits better
  4. Macethe original

Fit is the average pairing score against veal, egg, allspice, butter, pepper, flour, wine. 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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