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Veal Stew

A stew of veal strips, potato, eggs, milk, and flour, simmered in water and seasoned with butter, salt, pepper, and parsley.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
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Why it works: Pepper and parsley match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 2% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 34,122 recipes. Both carry 4'-methylacetophenone, which smells bitter almond. The science ↓

Veal Stew

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the stew

  1. Place the veal strips in a skillet and add enough cold water to cover the meat.

  2. Add the sliced potato and simmer gently for 20 to 30 minutes, ensuring the water does not boil away.

Thicken and finish

  1. In a bowl, mix the flour with a little milk to create a paste.

  2. Once the meat is tender, add the milk and flour mixture to the broth.

  3. Season with butter, salt, pepper, and parsley if desired.

  4. Slice the hard-boiled eggs and add them to the broth.

  5. Bring everything to a boil once and serve with or without toast.

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. Pepper + parsleytop 2% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together34,122 recipes

    Shared aroma: 4'-methylacetophenone (bitter almond).

  2. Potato + parsleytop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,855 recipes

    Shared aroma: 4'-methylacetophenone (bitter almond).

  3. Milk + buttertop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together81,283 recipes

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

  4. Potato + peppertop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together8,305 recipes

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

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

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

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

What each ingredient does

Veal steak
Provides the main protein, which becomes tender as it simmers in the broth.
Potato
Adds body and starch that softens into the broth, giving a heartier texture.
Flour
Mixed with milk to a paste, it thickens the broth into a creamy sauce.
Milk
Adds creaminess and mild sweetness, rounding out the broth with the flour.
Butter
Adds richness and fat, giving the finished stew a smooth, silky mouthfeel.
Hard-boiled eggs
Add soft, creamy texture and richness to the broth as sliced pieces.

The step that matters

Adding the flour and milk paste. Flour lumps if added dry or unmixed; mixing it with a little milk first lets starch disperse evenly, so the broth thickens smoothly rather than clumping.

Swap the parsley

The recipe marks parsley as optional. How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (veal, potato, egg, milk, flour, butter, pepper):

  1. Parsleythe original
  2. Nutmegfits about as well
  3. Cinnamonfits less well
  4. Turmericfits less well

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