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Broths or Stocks, Glaze, & C

A thickened veal glaze made with butter, Madeira wine, herbs, and eggs.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 22 ingredients
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Why it works: Basil and marjoram match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 688 recipes. Both carry terpineol, which smells pine, woody. The science ↓

Broths or Stocks, Glaze, & C

Ingredients

Directions

Make the sauce

  1. Melt butter in a stew-pan over low heat.

  2. Add herbs, onion, and mace; simmer until melted.

  3. Pour in Madeira and add sugar; boil gently for 1 hour.

  4. Strain sauce through a tamis and return to the pan.

Prepare the veal mixture

  1. Prepare veal by scraping off fat and sinews; soak bread crumbs in water.

  2. Combine veal, soaked bread, calf’s udder, butter, egg yolks, cayenne, salt, and spices in a mortar; pound until fine.

  3. Thicken mixture with 2 whole eggs and 1 yolk; test consistency in boiling water.

  4. If too thin, add another yolk.

Shape and poach

  1. Divide mixture; add chopped parsley to one half.

  2. Form both halves into balls the size of egg yolks; poach in boiling salted water.

  3. Drain on a sieve before serving.

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. Basil + marjoramtop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together688 recipes

    Shared aroma: terpineol (pine, woody).

  2. Parsley + marjoramtop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together1,979 recipes

    Shared aroma: cuminaldehyde (Spicy, cumin).

  3. Parsley + basiltop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together2,351 recipes

    Shared aroma: myristicin (spice, warm).

  4. Onion + parsleytop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together25,843 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2,4-decadienal (seaweed).

  5. Mace + marjoramtop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together767 recipes

    Shared aroma: methyleugenol (clove, spice).

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

What each ingredient does

Butter
Adds richness and fat that carries flavour and gives the mixture a smooth, rich texture.
Eggs
Bind the mixture and set when heated, giving the balls structure and body.
Veal
Provides the main meaty body of the mixture once pounded fine.
Bread crumbs
Soaked in water to add moisture and softness that keeps the mixture tender.
Madeira wine
Adds sweetness and aroma to the reduced sauce as it boils gently.

The step that matters

Test the consistency in boiling water. Eggs set when heated, so the mixture must be firm enough to hold a ball shape but not so thick it turns rubbery. Testing a small amount in boiling water shows whether another yolk is needed before shaping.

Swap the mace

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (butter, madeira wine, sugar, onion, parsley, basil, marjoram):

  1. Thymefits better
  2. Tarragonfits better
  3. Sagefits better
  4. Macethe original

Fit is the average pairing score against butter, madeira wine, sugar, onion, parsley, basil, marjoram. 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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