Why it works: Beef and onion are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 3% of all ingredient pairs, and 17,091 recipes mention both. Both carry 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine, which smells earthy, pea. The science ↓
The recipe
Ingredients
Contains: milk (auto-detected from the ingredients and method; we can miss things, so check labels)
Directions
The book gives no oven temperature. The 350°F (175°C) in the steps was added when the recipe was transcribed, as a starting point. The book gives no cooking times either; the times in the steps were added in transcription, so check for doneness rather than trusting the clock.
Prepare the veal
Preheat your oven to 350°F (175°C).
Stuff the veal with strips of fat and brown it in butter.
Simmer the stew
Add enough beef broth to cover the meat.
Season the broth with leek, yellow onion, white onion, carrots, coarse sea salt, black pepper, and tomato, then sauté these ingredients.
Let the stew simmer for 2 hours.
Add the pitted green olives and soaked dried porcini mushrooms.
Continue cooking for another hour.
Remove the leek, carrots, and onions before serving.
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 aroma chemistry they share, and how many recipes mention both.
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Beef + oniontop 3% of all pairsAroma overlapmoderateMentioned together17,091 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).
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Carrot + tomatotop 3% of all pairsAroma overlapstrongMentioned together3,597 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).
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Carrot + peppertop 3% of all pairsAroma overlapstrongMentioned together14,555 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).
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Beef + tomatotop 3% of all pairsAroma overlapstrongMentioned together5,445 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).
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Leek + carrottop 3% of all pairsAroma overlapmoderateMentioned together1,310 recipes
Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).
Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs
What each ingredient does
- Veal
- Lean meat that becomes tender and flavorful during long, slow simmering in broth.
- Butter
- Browns the veal's surface, building savory flavor through the Maillard reaction.
- Beef broth
- Liquid that gently cooks the meat and carries flavor throughout the stew.
- Dried porcini mushrooms
- Add concentrated, earthy umami flavor after soaking releases their savory liquid.
- Pitted green olives
- Contribute brine-driven acidity and a salty, briny note to the stew.
The step that matters
Browning the veal in butter. Searing the meat until deeply browned develops complex savory flavors through the Maillard reaction. Pale, crowded meat stews up greyer and blander.
Flavor stand-ins for the leek
How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (veal, butter, beef, onion, carrot, pepper, tomato):
- Potatobetter flavor fit
- Capsicumbetter flavor fit
- Leekthe original
- Asparagusabout as good a flavor fit
Fit is the average pairing score against veal, butter, beef, onion, carrot, pepper, tomato. Candidates are from the same food group and used in at least 100 recipes. This compares flavor only: it does not check the job the ingredient does in the dish (bulk, moisture, acidity, structure).
“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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