Why it works: Onion and mustard match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 6% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 9,259 recipes. Both carry 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine, which smells earthy, pea. The science ↓
Veal with Mustard Pickles
Ingredients
Directions
The book gives no oven temperature. The 300°F (150°C) in the steps was added when the recipe was transcribed, as a starting point.
Prepare
Cut the veal into small pieces and season with a little salt.
In a kettle, heat the butter or meat drippings without browning it.
Make the sauce base
Add the sliced onion and flour.
Cook until yellow while stirring continuously.
Add the veal.
Cook for five minutes, turning occasionally.
Pour in the stock or hot water with meat extract.
Add the bay leaf, pepper, and mustard pickles.
Cook for five minutes.
Bake
Cover the kettle and place it in a 300°F (150°C) oven for 1½ hours.
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.
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Onion + mustardtop 6% of all pairsSmell alikestrongCooked together9,259 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).
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Pepper + mustardtop 9% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together15,430 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).
-
Onion + peppertop 11% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together68,474 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).
-
Butter + flourtop 12% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together124,287 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
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Flour + mustardtop 13% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together5,066 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
- Provides the meat that becomes tender during slow, moist cooking.
- Flour
- Thickens the cooking liquid into a smooth sauce as it cooks with the fat.
- Stock
- Supplies the cooking liquid that moistens the meat and forms the sauce.
- Mustard pickles
- Add tangy acidity and sharp flavour that cut through the rich meat and sauce.
- Butter or meat drippings
- Provides fat for cooking the onion and veal and carries flavour through the dish.
The step that matters
Cook the flour until yellow without browning the fat. Heating the butter without browning keeps the flavour mild, and cooking the flour until yellow removes its raw taste and helps it thicken smoothly rather than clumping when liquid is added.
Swap the mustard
How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (veal, butter, onion, flour, meat, pepper):
- Potatofits better
- Leekfits better
- Shallotfits better
- Mustardthe original
Fit is the average pairing score against veal, butter, onion, flour, meat, 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.
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