Why it works: Milk and butter are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 7% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 81,283 recipes. Both carry (z)-4-heptenal, which smells biscuit, cream. The science ↓
Veal Pot-pie
Ingredients
Directions
Prepare the veal and dough
Boil the veal until nearly done.
In a bowl, mix flour, baking powder, and salt. Add enough rich, sweet milk to form a very stiff dough.
Roll out the dough and cut it into squares.
Cook and make the gravy
Drop the squares into the boiling veal and cook for 20 minutes.
Remove the meat and dumplings from the pot.
To make the gravy, add a good piece of butter and a little flour mixed with milk.
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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Milk + buttertop 7% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together81,283 recipes
Shared aroma: (z)-4-heptenal (biscuit, cream).
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Flour + buttertop 12% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together124,287 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
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Flour + milktop 14% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together78,219 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
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Veal + buttertop 23% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together9,381 recipes
Shared aroma: 3-hexenal (apple, fruity).
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Veal + milktop 24% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together2,013 recipes
Shared aroma: 4-heptenal (creamy, biscuit).
Flour and butter 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
- Provides the meat and the cooking liquid that flavours the dish.
- Flour
- Forms the stiff dough for the dumplings and thickens the gravy.
- Baking powder
- Releases gas in the dough so the dumplings rise and turn light.
- Rich, sweet milk
- Hydrates the flour into a dough and adds richness to the dumplings.
- Butter
- Adds fat and richness to the gravy.
The step that matters
Drop the squares into the boiling veal. The pot must be boiling when the dough goes in so the dumplings cook through and set quickly. Keeping the liquid at a steady boil while they cook helps them stay light instead of turning heavy and soggy.
“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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