Skip to main content
Main

Ragout of Cold Veal

A ragout of veal cutlets simmered in mushroom ketchup with butter, pepper, salt, mace, and wine.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
By Margaret Brown · From a historical cookbook (Project Gutenberg) · 7 ingredients
Jump to recipe ↓

Why it works: Butter and mushroom are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 7% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 12,525 recipes. Both carry trans-2-decenal, which smells waxy, orange. The science ↓

Ragout of Cold Veal

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the veal

  1. Choose the neck, loin, or fillet of veal and cut it into cutlets.

  2. Put a piece of butter in a frying pan; when hot, flour and fry the veal until lightly browned.

Make the gravy

  1. Remove the veal and add 1 pint of boiling water to the pan; bring to a boil for a minute and strain into a basin.

  2. While the water is boiling, make a thickening: melt an ounce of butter in a pan and mix with enough flour to dry it up.

  3. Stir the mixture over the fire for a few minutes and gradually add the gravy made in the frying pan.

Finish and serve

  1. Let the mixture simmer together for ten minutes.

  2. Season with pepper, salt, a little mace, and 1 wine-glass of mushroom ketchup or wine until the meat is thoroughly warmed.

  3. (Optional) Add ready-boiled bacon, sliced, to warm with the veal.

Nutrition, whole recipe (rough)

123Calories
3 gProtein
12 gFat
4 gCarbs

Counts 4 of 6 ingredients. The other 2 aren't in our nutrition table and add nothing above, so the real totals are higher.

What these numbers assume: 4 portions
IngredientPortion assumedkcal
Butter1 tbsp (14g)102
Mushroom1/2 cup sliced (35g)15
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 Margaret Brown. 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. Butter + mushroomtop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together12,525 recipes

    Shared aroma: trans-2-decenal (waxy, orange).

  2. Wine + mushroomtop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,632 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-methoxy-4-propylphenol (allspice, anise).

  3. Mushroom + peppertop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together13,580 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).

  4. Butter + winetop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together8,645 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-furfurylthiol (coffee, roasted).

  5. Pepper + macetop 16% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together12,257 recipes

    Shared aroma: myristicin (spice, warm).

Pepper and mace barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 12,257 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 (in the method)
Forms the main body of the ragout, becoming tender and savoury as it simmers in the sauce.
Butter
Browns the flour-dusted veal and enriches the flavour of the gravy.
Flour (in the method)
Thickens the gravy so it clings to the meat instead of running thin.
Mushroom catsup
Adds deep savoury, umami flavour to the sauce.

The step that matters

Thickening the flour and butter. Cook the flour and butter together for a few minutes before adding liquid so the raw starch taste cooks off and the sauce thickens smoothly without lumps.

Swap the mace

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (butter, wine, mushroom, pepper):

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

Fit is the average pairing score against butter, wine, mushroom, pepper. 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.

You might also like

Mushroom SoupMushroom Soup60 recipesTomato SoupTomato Soup526 recipesBrown BreadBrown Bread461 recipesMutton BrothMutton Broth292 recipes