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Veal Stew, Piquant

A stew of veal pieces browned in butter, cooked with cucumber, gooseberries, lettuce, and onions in stock.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 8 ingredients
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Why it works: Cucumber and lettuce match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 1,409 recipes. Both carry 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine, which smells earthy, pea. The science ↓

Veal Stew, Piquant

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the veal

  1. Season the veal pieces with salt and pepper.

  2. Dredge the seasoned veal pieces in flour.

Fry and stew

  1. Fry the veal in butter until lightly browned.

  2. Add sliced cucumber, gooseberries, shredded lettuce, and onions to the pan. Stir the vegetables while frying to prevent burning.

  3. Transfer the ingredients to a saucepan. Add enough boiling stock or water to barely cover them.

  4. Simmer gently until the meat is tender, about 1 hour.

Serve

  1. Serve very hot.

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. Cucumber + lettucetop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together1,409 recipes

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

  2. Lettuce + oniontop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together3,562 recipes

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

  3. Cucumber + oniontop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together6,050 recipes

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

  4. Pepper + lettucetop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together4,037 recipes

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

  5. Flour + lettucetop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together1,236 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

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

What each ingredient does

Veal
Provides the main protein, which becomes tender through long, gentle simmering.
Flour
Coats the veal so it browns in the butter and helps thicken the cooking liquid.
Butter
Conducts heat for frying and adds browning and rich flavor to the meat.
Cucumber
Adds moisture and a mild, fresh flavor as it softens in the stew.
Green gooseberries
Contribute sharp acidity that balances the richness of the meat and butter.

The step that matters

Simmer gently until the meat is tender. High heat or a rapid boil toughens meat proteins and can break up the vegetables. A slow simmer lets collagen soften gradually, so the veal turns tender while the stew stays intact.

Swap the onion

The recipe marks onion as optional. How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (veal, pepper, flour, butter, cucumber, lettuce):

  1. Chivefits better
  2. Beetrootfits better
  3. Spinachfits better
  4. Onionthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against veal, pepper, flour, butter, cucumber, lettuce. 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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