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Veal

A veal stew with bacon, carrots, onions, herbs, mace, and a sweetened gravy.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 12 ingredients
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Why it works: Clove and pepper match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 5% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 17,451 recipes. Both carry ethyl octanoate, which smells fruity, wine. The science ↓

Veal

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare and brown

  1. Cut the veal into neat pieces.

  2. Fry the veal in butter until browned on both sides.

Braise

  1. Add bacon, carrots, onions, herbs, mace, pepper, and salt.

  2. Pour in boiling stock or water to barely cover the ingredients.

  3. Simmer gently until the meat is cooked through.

Make the sauce and serve

  1. Remove the meat, skim the sauce, and strain it.

  2. Boil the sauce quickly to reduce it.

  3. Add sugar browning and optional tomato sauce and ketchup for flavor.

  4. Place the meat on a dish, trim the carrots, and arrange them around the meat.

  5. Pour some gravy over the veal and serve the rest in a tureen.

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. Clove + peppertop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together17,451 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl octanoate (fruity, wine).

  2. Carrot + clovetop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together5,873 recipes

    Shared aroma: cuminaldehyde (Spicy, cumin).

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

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

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

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

  5. Clove + macetop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together8,400 recipes

    Shared aroma: methyleugenol (clove, spice).

Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs

What each ingredient does

Veal
Forms the main body of the dish, becoming tender through slow simmering.
Butter
Browns the surface of the veal, adding color and a rich, nutty flavor.
Bacon
Adds savory, smoky fat that flavors the braising liquid and sauce.
Carrots
Add natural sweetness and body to the braising liquid and sauce.
Onions
Contribute savory depth and sweetness as they soften into the sauce.
Sugar browning
Darkens the sauce and deepens its color for a richer appearance.

The step that matters

Simmer gently until the meat is cooked through. Boiling rather than simmering toughens meat proteins and can make the sauce cloudy. A gentle simmer lets connective tissue break down slowly, keeping the veal tender and moist.

Swap the mace

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

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

Fit is the average pairing score against veal, butter, carrot, onion, clove, pepper, sugar. 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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