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Veal, Grenadins of

A veal stew with gravy, peas, and sweet herbs, cooked in a larded veal and butter sauce.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
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Why it works: Carrot and turnip match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 8,002 recipes. Both carry coumarin, which smells sweet, hay. The science ↓

Veal, Grenadins of

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Cut the veal into neat round pieces and flatten them.

  2. Lard one side of each piece with fat bacon strips.

Make the gravy

  1. In a stewpan, combine veal bones, cold water, carrot, turnip, onion, sweet herbs, marjoram, ham, sugar, mustard, salt, and pepper.

  2. Boil the sauce until strong and flavorful, skimming frequently.

  3. Strain the sauce, let it cool, and remove the fat from the top.

Cook the veal

  1. In a bright stewpan, quickly rub garlic and dissolve butter.

  2. Add the veal, larded side up, and brown lightly.

  3. Pour in enough strained gravy to touch the larding without covering it.

  4. Simmer the veal gently until cooked, basting frequently.

  5. Remove the veal and add peas and sugar to the gravy.

  6. Boil the peas uncovered for 5 minutes, then return the veal to the pan.

  7. Simmer until the peas are tender.

Serve

  1. Serve the peas on a dish, place the veal on top, and pour the gravy over.

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. Carrot + turniptop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together8,002 recipes

    Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).

  2. Carrot + marjoramtop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together687 recipes

    Shared aroma: cuminaldehyde (Spicy, cumin).

  3. Clove + marjoramtop 2% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together1,075 recipes

    Shared aroma: cuminaldehyde (Spicy, cumin).

  4. Turnip + mustardtop 2% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together290 recipes

    Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).

  5. Turnip + marjoramtop 2% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together367 recipes

    Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).

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

What each ingredient does

Veal
Forms the main body of the dish, becoming tender through slow, gentle simmering.
Fat bacon strips
Larding fat melts during cooking, adding moisture and savory flavor to the lean veal.
Lean ham
Adds savory, meaty depth to the gravy as it simmers with the other flavorings.
Fresh butter
Adds richness and a rounded flavor to the veal as it browns.
White sugar
Adds a little sweetness that balances the savory gravy and the peas.

The step that matters

Pour in just enough gravy to touch the larding. Keeping the larded side above the liquid lets it roast and brown while the lower part braises. Covering it would make the top pale and soft, and simmering too hard would toughen the veal.

Swap the onion

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (veal, carrot, turnip, clove, marjoram, ham, mustard):

  1. Leekfits better
  2. Parsnipfits better
  3. Shallotfits better
  4. Onionthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against veal, carrot, turnip, clove, marjoram, ham, mustard. 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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