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Veal Gravy

A savory gravy made from veal bones, water, onion, lemon peel, mace, and butter, thickened with flour.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 10 ingredients
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Why it works: Onion and tomato are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 8% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 20,633 recipes. Both carry 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine, which smells earthy, pea. The science ↓

Veal Gravy

Ingredients

Directions

Make the stock

  1. Place the bones, veal remnants, water, onion, lemon peel, salt, and mace in a stewpan.

  2. Simmer for one hour.

  3. Strain the mixture into a basin.

Thicken and serve

  1. Mix butter and flour to thicken, adding a little water.

  2. Boil the thickened mixture.

  3. Stir in the lemon juice.

  4. Serve hot, flavored with tomato sauce or ketchup if desired.

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 + tomatotop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together20,633 recipes

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

  2. Lemon + tomatotop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together4,592 recipes

    Shared aroma: 3-hexenal (apple, fruity).

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

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  4. Onion + buttertop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together42,912 recipes

    Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).

  5. Lemon + buttertop 16% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together41,227 recipes

    Shared aroma: 3-hexenal (apple, fruity).

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 bones and remnants
Release gelatin and savory flavor into the water as they simmer, giving the gravy body and depth.
Butter and flour
Flour thickens the liquid as it boils, while butter adds richness and a smooth mouthfeel.
Onion
Adds sweet aromatic flavor to the stock as it simmers.
Lemon juice
Adds a small amount of acidity that brightens the rich, savory gravy.

The step that matters

Boil the thickened mixture. Flour must be heated to boiling to swell its starch granules and thicken the gravy fully. Stopping early leaves a thin sauce with a raw, pasty taste.

Swap the tomato

The recipe marks tomato as optional. How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (veal, onion, lemon, mace, butter, flour):

  1. Leekfits better
  2. Shallotfits better
  3. Arrowrootfits better
  4. Tomatothe original

Fit is the average pairing score against veal, onion, lemon, mace, butter, flour. 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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