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Veal Stew

A stew of veal, potatoes, onions, and a butter‑flour‑milk sauce.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 7 ingredients
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Why it works: Onion and potato are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 3% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 9,023 recipes. Both carry 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine, which smells earthy, pea. The science ↓

Veal Stew

Ingredients

Directions

Cook the veal and potatoes

  1. Cover the veal with boiling water.

  2. Add salt and browned onion.

  3. Simmer until the veal is tender.

  4. Add the potatoes.

  5. Cook until the potatoes are tender.

Make the sauce

  1. In a separate pan, melt the butter.

  2. Stir in the flour.

  3. Gradually add the cold milk.

  4. Stir until smooth.

  5. Add the veal broth gradually.

Finish and serve

  1. Remove any bones from the veal.

  2. Simmer all together for 5 minutes.

  3. Serve.

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. Onion + potatotop 3% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together9,023 recipes

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

  2. Butter + milktop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together81,283 recipes

    Shared aroma: (z)-4-heptenal (biscuit, cream).

  3. Potato + milktop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together3,611 recipes

    Shared aroma: (e,z)-2,6-nonadienal (cucumber, melon).

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

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  5. Potato + buttertop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together6,456 recipes

    Shared aroma: (z)-4-heptenal (biscuit, cream).

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
Provides the main protein, which becomes tender as it simmers slowly in water.
Potatoes
Add starch and body, thickening the stew as they cook and soften.
Flour
Thickens the butter and milk mixture into a smooth, creamy sauce.
Butter
Adds richness and flavour, and forms the base roux with the flour.
Milk
Adds creaminess and body to the sauce, lending it a mild sweetness.

The step that matters

Gradually add the cold milk. Adding cold milk to the hot roux all at once can cause lumps. Adding it slowly while stirring lets the flour starch disperse evenly, so the sauce turns smooth as it thickens.

Swap the onion

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

  1. Chivefits better
  2. Leekfits better
  3. Asparagusfits about as well
  4. Onionthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against veal, potato, butter, flour, milk. 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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