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To Ragout a Knuckle of Veal

A slow‑cooked ragout of veal knuckle with celery, carrots, herbs, mace, ketchup, tomato sauce, sherry, and lemon.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
By Isabella Beeton · From a historical cookbook (Project Gutenberg) · 13 ingredients
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Why it works: Ketchup and sauce match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 1,099 recipes. Both carry ethanol, which smells alcoholic, ethereal. The science ↓

To Ragout a Knuckle of Veal

6 persons

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the meat

  1. Cut the meat from a knuckle of veal into neat slices, season with pepper and salt, and dredge them with flour.

  2. Fry the sliced meat in a little butter until pale brown.

  3. Put the browned meat into a stewpan with the bone, which should be chopped in several places.

Make the gravy

  1. Add the celery, herbs, mace, and carrots to the stewpan.

  2. Pour about 1 pint of hot water over the contents.

  3. Let the mixture simmer very gently for 2 hours over a slow but clear fire.

  4. Take out the slices of meat and carrots.

  5. Strain the liquid and thicken the gravy with a little butter rolled in flour.

  6. Add the remaining ingredients (ketchup, tomato sauce, sherry, lemon juice, celery seed, etc.).

  7. Give the gravy one boil.

Finish and serve

  1. Put the meat and carrots back into the gravy.

  2. Let them heat through.

  3. Serve.

  4. (Optional) Add boiled green peas at the moment of serving.

Nutrition, whole recipe (rough)

115Calories
3 gProtein
1 gFat
22 gCarbs

Counts 7 of 9 ingredients. The other 2 aren't in our nutrition table and add nothing above, so the real totals are higher.

What these numbers assume: 7 portions
IngredientPortion assumedkcal
Onion1 medium (110g)44
Wine2 tbsp cooking wine (30ml)25
Tomato1 medium (123g)22
Lemonjuice of 1 lemon (48ml)12
Celery1 stalk (40g)6
Black Pepper1 tsp ground (2.3g)6
Salt1 tsp (6g)0
Waternot in our table0
Macenot in our table0

One typical portion per ingredient; the recipe's quantities are not counted. A rough guide only, not for medical or dietary planning.

By Isabella Beeton. Recipe from a historical cookbook (Project Gutenberg).

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. See the original page.

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. Ketchup + saucetop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together1,099 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

  2. Celery + lemontop 3% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together3,467 recipes

    Shared aroma: beta-phellandrene (minty, terpene).

  3. Celery + tomatotop 4% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together3,377 recipes

    Shared aroma: 4'-methylacetophenone (bitter almond).

  4. Celery + oniontop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together18,518 recipes

    Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).

  5. Tomato + oniontop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together20,633 recipes

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

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

What each ingredient does

Veal knuckle meat (in the method)
Provides the main meat, which browns and becomes tender during the long gentle simmer.
Flour (in the method)
Dredges the meat for browning and thickens the gravy with the butter.
Butter (in the method)
Browns the meat and forms a roux with flour to thicken the gravy.
Sherry
Adds acidity and a rich aromatic flavour to the gravy.
Tomato sauce
Adds acidity, colour and savoury depth to the gravy.

The step that matters

Simmer very gently for 2 hours. A vigorous boil toughens meat proteins and can cloud the gravy, while a slow simmer lets collagen soften gradually and keeps the broth clear.

Swap the mace

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (celery, ketchup, tomato, sauce, sherry, onion, lemon):

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

Fit is the average pairing score against celery, ketchup, tomato, sauce, sherry, onion, lemon. 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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