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Fricandeau with Gravy

A veal dish braised in a butter‑flour gravy with peas.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 7 ingredients
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Why it works: Pepper and beef are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 10% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 18,971 recipes. Both carry 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine, which smells earthy, pea. The science ↓

Fricandeau with Gravy

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the veal

  1. Season the veal with salt and pepper.

  2. In a pan, melt the butter.

  3. Brown the veal on all sides.

  4. Remove the veal from the pan.

Make the gravy

  1. Add flour to the pan, stirring to make a roux.

  2. Gradually add the beef broth, stirring until thickened.

  3. Return the veal to the pan.

  4. Simmer until cooked through.

Serve

  1. Serve with peas.

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. Pepper + beeftop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together18,971 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).

  2. Veal + beeftop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together3,784 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2,6-nonadienal (cucumber, green).

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

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  4. Beef + peastop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,044 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).

  5. Pepper + peastop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together5,331 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).

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
Is the main protein, browned for flavor and then cooked gently until tender.
Butter
Fat for browning the veal and adding richness to the pan.
Flour
Forms a roux with the butter that thickens the gravy.
Beef broth
Liquid that, combined with the roux, becomes the body of the gravy.

The step that matters

Brown the veal on all sides. Browning creates flavorful savory compounds through the Maillard reaction. Pale, undercooked surfaces produce a bland gravy, so the veal should be well colored before it is removed.

Swap the peas

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

  1. Beansfits better
  2. Almondfits better
  3. Chestnutfits better
  4. Peasthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against veal, pepper, beef, butter, 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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