Why it works: Butter and cream are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 8% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 41,516 recipes. Both carry delta-dodecalactone, which smells sweet, creamy. The science ↓
Veal Stew
Ingredients
Directions
Prepare the stew
Wash the veal pieces and place them in a stewpan with 2 quarts of water.
Bring to a boil and skim off any scum.
Add salt, pepper, and a small piece of butter.
Add the halved potatoes to the stewpan.
Make the dumplings and cook
In a bowl, mix the eggs, cream or milk, a little salt, and enough flour to make a batter slightly thicker than pancake batter.
Drop spoonfuls of the batter into the boiling stew.
Cover the pan tightly to prevent steam from escaping.
Boil for 20 minutes.
Serve in a deep dish.
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.
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Butter + creamtop 8% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together41,516 recipes
Shared aroma: delta-dodecalactone (sweet, creamy).
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Pepper + potatotop 9% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together8,305 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).
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Butter + flourtop 12% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together124,287 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
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Butter + potatotop 13% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together6,456 recipes
Shared aroma: (z)-4-heptenal (biscuit, cream).
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Potato + flourtop 15% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together5,355 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
Butter and flour barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 124,287 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
- Provides the meat that gives the stew its body and savory flavor.
- Eggs
- Bind the batter so the spoonfuls hold together as they cook.
- Flour
- Thickens the batter so it sets into soft dumplings in the stew.
- Cream or milk
- Adds moisture and richness to the batter, keeping the dumplings tender.
- Potatoes
- Soften in the broth and add starch that lightly thickens the stew.
The step that matters
Drop the batter into the boiling stew. The stew must be at a full boil when the batter goes in so the spoonfuls set quickly on the outside. If the liquid is only simmering, the batter can disperse and turn gluey instead of forming firm dumplings.
Swap the potato
How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (veal, pepper, butter, egg, cream, flour):
- Leekfits about as well
- Spinachfits about as well
- Chivefits about as well
- Potatothe original
Fit is the average pairing score against veal, pepper, butter, egg, cream, flour. 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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