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Veal, Stuffed and Stewed Shoulder of

A stewed veal shoulder stuffed with forcemeat, ham or bacon, carrots, onions, herbs, and mace, served with gravy.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 10 ingredients
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Why it works: Carrot and pepper match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 6% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 14,555 recipes. Both carry 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine, which smells earthy, pea. The science ↓

Veal, Stuffed and Stewed Shoulder of

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the veal

  1. Bone the joint by carefully detaching the meat from the blade-bone on both sides without piercing the skin.

  2. Cut the bone from the knuckle and remove it.

  3. Fill the cavity with forcemeat, roll and bind the veal lightly.

Stew

  1. Place it in a stewpan with carrots, onions, seasoning, herbs, and mace.

  2. Pour in enough water to cover it and let it stew gently for about 5 hours.

  3. Check doneness by inserting a larding needle; it should penetrate easily.

Make the gravy and serve

  1. Strain and skim the gravy, thicken with butter and flour, boil once, and pour around the meat.

  2. Garnish with boiled young carrots and serve with green peas when in season.

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. Carrot + peppertop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together14,555 recipes

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

  2. Carrot + oniontop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together21,601 recipes

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

  3. Onion + peppertop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together68,474 recipes

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

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

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  5. Carrot + flourtop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together8,029 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

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 shoulder
Provides the main meat, which becomes tender through long, gentle stewing.
Forcemeat
Fills the cavity, adding moisture and flavor to the lean joint as it cooks.
Butter and flour
Form a roux that thickens the strained cooking liquid into a smooth gravy.
Carrots
Release sweetness and aroma into the stewing liquid, flavoring the gravy.

The step that matters

Stewing gently for a long time. Veal shoulder is full of connective tissue. Slow, gentle simmering at low heat converts it into gelatin, making the meat tender and moist. A hard boil toughens the meat and can break it apart, so the liquid should only barely move.

Swap the mace

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (veal, ham, carrot, onion, pepper, butter, flour):

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

Fit is the average pairing score against veal, ham, carrot, onion, pepper, 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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