Name: Veal Chop, Stewed with Carrots
Ingredients: 1 large veal chop (about 1 pound); 2 large carrots, cut into thick slices; 1 onion, stuck with 2 cloves; ¼ teaspoon pepper; ¼ teaspoon coarse sea salt (formerly 'bay salt'); boiling stock (enough to cover the meat); a little hot fat for frying

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 Chop, Stewed with Carrots

Ingredients

1 large veal chop (about 1 pound)
2 large carrots, cut into thick slices
1 onion, stuck with 2 cloves
¼ teaspoon pepper
¼ teaspoon coarse sea salt (formerly 'bay salt')
boiling stock (enough to cover the meat)
a little hot fat for frying

Directions

Prepare

Trim the chop and saw off the chine-bone.

Brown and stew

Fry the chop in hot fat for 3-4 minutes until lightly browned on both sides.
Drain the chop and place it in a small saucepan.
Add the carrots, onion, pepper, and salt.
Pour boiling stock over the meat until covered.
Cover the saucepan and simmer gently for about 1 hour until the carrots are tender.

Serve

Serve the chop on a dish, garnished with carrots, and strain the gravy over it.

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.

Clove + peppertop 5% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together17,451 recipes

Shared aroma: ethyl octanoate (fruity, wine).
Carrot + clovetop 5% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together5,873 recipes

Shared aroma: cuminaldehyde (Spicy, cumin).
Carrot + peppertop 6% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together14,555 recipes

Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).
Carrot + oniontop 6% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together21,601 recipes

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

Veal chop: Provides the main meat, which becomes tender through slow simmering in liquid.
Carrots: Add sweetness and soft texture as they cook down in the stock.
Onion: Adds savory aroma and body to the stock as it simmers with the meat.

The step that matters

Simmer gently with the lid on. A gentle simmer keeps the stock below a rolling boil, so the meat turns tender and stays juicy rather than tightening and drying out. A tight lid holds in moisture and keeps the liquid from reducing too fast.

Swap the onion

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

Capsicumfits better
Parsnipfits better
Turnipfits better
Onionthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against veal, carrot, clove, pepper, meat. 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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Veal Chop, Stewed with Carrots