Why it works: Sugar and sauce match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 13% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 5,147 recipes. Both carry ethanol, which smells alcoholic, ethereal. The science ↓
Endfvte in Gravy of Veal
Ingredients
Directions
Prepare the endive
Wash and clean the endive thoroughly.
Remove the outer leaves and blanch the heads in hot water.
Transfer them to cold water and squeeze them dry.
Stew and finish
Stew the endive in enough gravy to cover them.
Add the pounded sugar and a little salt.
When tender, stir in a little velouté sauce and serve hot.
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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Sugar + saucetop 13% of all pairsSmell alikestrongCooked together5,147 recipes
Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).
-
Endive + saucetop 19% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together129 recipes
Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).
-
Endive + sugartop 28% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together116 recipes
Shared aroma: 1-penten-3-one (fish, pungent).
Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs
What each ingredient does
- Endive
- Forms the main body of the dish, becoming soft and tender as it stews.
- Gravy
- Provides the savoury liquid that cooks the endive and carries its flavour.
- Velouté sauce
- Adds a smooth, creamy body to the finished gravy.
- Pounded sugar
- Balances the endive's natural bitterness with a touch of sweetness.
The step that matters
Blanching the endive. Blanching in hot water softens the leaves and reduces bitterness before stewing. Skipping it or blanching too long can leave the heads limp, waterlogged or still harsh in flavour.
Swap the endive
How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (sugar, sauce):
- Mustardfits better
- Capsicumfits better
- Horseradishfits better
- Endivethe original
Fit is the average pairing score against sugar, sauce. 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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