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Calf's Chaudron, Fricassee

A stew of calf meat pieces simmered in broth, butter, and a sauce of mutton gravy, citrus juices, and egg yolks.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 16 ingredients
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Why it works: Nutmeg and clove match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and 8,686 recipes mention both. Both carry estragole, which smells anise, licorice. The science ↓

Calf's Chaudron, Fricassee

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the chaudron

  1. Parboil the calf's chaudron, then let it cool.

  2. Cut the chaudron into pieces about the size of walnuts.

Season and fry

  1. Season the pieces with salt, pepper, nutmeg, cloves, mace, onion, tarragon, and parsley.

  2. Fry the seasoned pieces in a ladleful of broth and fresh butter.

Make the sauce and serve

  1. In a separate bowl, mix mutton gravy, orange juice, lemon juice, egg yolks, and grated nutmeg.

  2. Toss the chaudron pieces with the sauce, then dish it up and serve.

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 aroma chemistry they share, and how many recipes mention both.

  1. Nutmeg + clovetop 1% of all pairs
    Aroma overlapstrong
    Mentioned together8,686 recipes

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

  2. Tarragon + parsleytop 1% of all pairs
    Aroma overlapstrong
    Mentioned together1,563 recipes

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

  3. Pepper + parsleytop 2% of all pairs
    Aroma overlapstrong
    Mentioned together34,122 recipes

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

  4. Nutmeg + parsleytop 3% of all pairs
    Aroma overlapstrong
    Mentioned together5,062 recipes

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

  5. Nutmeg + macetop 4% of all pairs
    Aroma overlapmoderate
    Mentioned together6,557 recipes

    Shared aroma: myristicin (spice, warm).

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

What each ingredient does

Calf's chaudron
Forms the main body of the dish, cooked into bite-sized pieces that hold the sauce.
Egg yolks
Thicken the sauce and add richness as they set gently with the warm gravy.
Fresh butter
Adds fat for frying, carrying flavour and giving the pieces a rich, browned surface.
Mutton gravy
Supplies the liquid base of the sauce, adding savoury depth and moisture.
Lemon juice
Adds acidity that brightens the rich sauce and balances the fat.
Orange juice
Contributes gentle acidity and sweetness that rounds out the sauce.

The step that matters

Adding the egg yolk sauce to the chaudron. Egg yolks thicken when heated gently but can curdle or scramble if the sauce is too hot. Tossing the pieces with the sauce while they are warm, not boiling, keeps it smooth and cohesive.

Flavor stand-ins for the mace

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (pepper, nutmeg, clove, onion, tarragon, parsley, butter):

  1. Thymebetter flavor fit
  2. Marjorambetter flavor fit
  3. Allspicebetter flavor fit
  4. Macethe original

Fit is the average pairing score against pepper, nutmeg, clove, onion, tarragon, parsley, butter. Candidates are from the same food group and used in at least 100 recipes. This compares flavor only: it does not check the job the ingredient does in the dish (bulk, moisture, acidity, structure).

“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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