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Veal, Knuckle Of, Stewed with Macaroni

A stew of veal knuckle simmered with onions, spices, and macaroni, thickened with ground rice and milk.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 10 ingredients
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Why it works: Rice and milk are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 7% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 7,374 recipes. Both carry 2-nonenal, which smells fatty, green. The science ↓

Veal, Knuckle Of, Stewed with Macaroni

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare and simmer

  1. Break the shank-bone of the knuckle of veal and wash the joint well.

  2. Place the veal in a stewpan with the shallot or onion, pepper, salt, and mace.

  3. Cover with stock or water and let it simmer for 1.5 hours.

Finish the stew

  1. Add the macaroni and simmer until tender.

  2. For a thicker sauce, mix the ground rice with milk and add it for the last 10 minutes.

  3. Optionally, stir in a little cream to enrich the sauce.

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. Rice + milktop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together7,374 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).

  2. Shallot + ricetop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together284 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2,4-decadienal (seaweed).

  3. Shallot + peppertop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together5,898 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2,4-decadienal (seaweed).

  4. Pepper + ricetop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together8,379 recipes

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

  5. Pepper + macetop 16% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together12,257 recipes

    Shared aroma: myristicin (spice, warm).

Pepper and mace barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 12,257 recipes: they work on texture and structure more than aroma.

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

What each ingredient does

Veal knuckle
Releases gelatin and flavour into the stock during long simmering, enriching the broth.
Macaroni
Absorbs liquid and softens, adding body and starch to the stew.
Ground rice
Starch that thickens the milk and stock into a smoother, thicker sauce.
Milk
Adds creaminess and softness to the sauce, mellowing its flavour.

The step that matters

Adding the ground rice and milk. Ground rice must be mixed smoothly with milk before adding, otherwise it clumps. Its starch thickens the liquid as it heats, so it is added near the end to avoid over-thickening during the simmer.

Swap the mace

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (veal, shallot, pepper, rice, milk, cream):

  1. Nutmegfits better
  2. Turmericfits better
  3. Tarragonfits better
  4. Macethe original

Fit is the average pairing score against veal, shallot, pepper, rice, milk, cream. 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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