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Veal, Breast Of, Ragout of

A slow‑cooked ragout of veal breast simmered with carrots, onions, mace, herbs, lemon, and sherry, served with savory forcemeat balls.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 12 ingredients
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Why it works: Lemon and pepper match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 3% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 27,047 recipes. Both carry trans-2-nonenal, which smells cardboard, fatty. The science ↓

Veal, Breast Of, Ragout of

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Remove the underbone from the veal and place it in a stewpan with enough boiling stock to cover it.

  2. Bring the stock to a boil, then add the sliced carrot, onions, mace, sweet herbs, lemon rind, pepper, and salt.

Simmer and finish

  1. Skim the gravy and simmer gently for about 2 hours until the veal is tender.

  2. Thicken the gravy to a sauce consistency, then stir in the strained lemon juice and sherry or Madeira.

Serve

  1. Transfer the veal to a serving dish, pour the gravy over it, and garnish with savory forcemeat balls and cut lemon.

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. Lemon + peppertop 3% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together27,047 recipes

    Shared aroma: trans-2-nonenal (cardboard, fatty).

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

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

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

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

  4. Carrot + lemontop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together3,351 recipes

    Shared aroma: trans-2-nonenal (cardboard, fatty).

  5. Onion + peppertop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together68,474 recipes

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

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

What each ingredient does

Breast of veal
Provides the main meat, which turns tender and rich during long, gentle simmering.
Stock
Supplies the liquid that cooks the veal and forms the base of the gravy.
Sherry or madeira
Adds a fortified wine aroma and sweetness that rounds out the gravy.
Lemon juice
Adds acidity that brightens the rich gravy and balances its flavour.

The step that matters

Simmer gently and skim the gravy. A gentle simmer keeps the veal tender without toughening its proteins, and skimming removes impurities and excess fat so the gravy stays clear and clean-tasting.

Swap the mace

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (veal, carrot, onion, lemon, pepper, sherry):

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

Fit is the average pairing score against veal, carrot, onion, lemon, pepper, sherry. 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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