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Stewed Veal

A veal breast braised with onion, parsley root or celery, tomatoes, and seasonings, finished with a flour‑thickened gravy.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 10 ingredients
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Why it works: Onion and tomato are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 8% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 20,633 recipes. Both carry 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine, which smells earthy, pea. The science ↓

Stewed Veal

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Wash the breast of veal, wipe it dry, and sprinkle with a mixture of fine salt and ginger.

  2. Heat goose fat or butter in a stew pan, add chopped onion and sliced parsley root or celery.

Stew

  1. When hot, lay in the breast of veal, cover tightly, and stew for a few minutes.

  2. Remove the lid, turn the veal to the other side, and add chopped tomatoes or canned tomatoes with a little hot water.

  3. Cover tightly again and stew slowly for two hours, turning the meat often.

Finish and serve

  1. When done, thicken the gravy with flour mixed in a little cold water.

  2. Add minced parsley or caraway seed, boil once, and serve.

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. Onion + tomatotop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together20,633 recipes

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

  2. Parsley + tomatotop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together5,398 recipes

    Shared aroma: 4'-methylacetophenone (bitter almond).

  3. Onion + parsleytop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together25,843 recipes

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

  4. Ginger + oniontop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together7,595 recipes

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

  5. Ginger + tomatotop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,887 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

Breast of veal
Is the main meat that becomes tender during long, slow stewing.
Goose fat or butter
Provides fat for browning and carries flavour into the stew.
Onion
Softens and sweetens as it cooks, building the base flavour of the gravy.
Tomatoes
Add acidity and body, helping to shape the flavour of the gravy.
Flour
Thickens the cooking liquid into a smoother, more cohesive gravy.

The step that matters

Stewing slowly for two hours, turning often. Low, gentle heat with a tight lid breaks down the tough connective tissue in veal slowly. Turning the meat keeps it evenly moist and prevents it from drying or scorching on the pan base.

Swap the ginger

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (veal, butter, onion, parsley, tomato, flour):

  1. Capersfits better
  2. Thymefits better
  3. Garlicfits better
  4. Gingerthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against veal, butter, onion, parsley, tomato, 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.

More stewed veal recipes

Shoulder 25Loin 21Breast 15Fillet 10Knuckle 7Knuckle with Rice 4 See all 14 →

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