Why it works: Mace and clove match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 2% of all ingredient pairs, and 8,199 recipes mention both. Both carry methyleugenol, which smells clove, spice. The science ↓
The recipe
Ingredients
Contains: milk, wheat (auto-detected from the ingredients and method; we can miss things, so check labels)
Directions
Prepare
Wash the veal in cold water and dry it off.
Cut the outside skin to prevent curling.
Pound the veal well on both sides.
Slice the bacon, remove its skin, and trim the edges.
Cut the bacon into wedge-shaped pieces.
Make deep incisions in the veal.
Lard the veal with bacon pieces, spaced half an inch apart.
Brown and braise
In a Dutch oven, heat 2 ounces of butter until hot enough to brown.
Season the veal with salt and pepper.
Dredge one side of the veal with flour.
Place the veal flour side down in the oven.
Dredge the other side of the veal with flour.
Cover the oven.
Brown the veal on both sides until yellow-brown.
Add the bay leaves to the oven.
Add enough hot water to reach half of the veal.
Cover the oven.
Cook slowly for one hour, basting often.
Make the gravy
Lift the veal into a warm chafing dish.
Skim off some fat from the gravy.
Stir in 2 teaspoons of browned flour, ½ pint of hot water, mace, cloves, and vinegar.
Let the gravy boil for a few minutes.
Stir the gravy from the bottom.
Season the gravy with salt and pepper to taste.
Strain the gravy into a gravy 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 aroma chemistry they share, and how many recipes mention both.
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Mace + clovetop 2% of all pairsAroma overlapstrongMentioned together8,199 recipes
Shared aroma: methyleugenol (clove, spice).
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Clove + peppertop 3% of all pairsAroma overlapstrongMentioned together13,144 recipes
Shared aroma: ethyl octanoate (fruity, wine).
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Cider + vinegartop 4% of all pairsAroma overlapstrongMentioned together402 recipes
Shared aroma: 4-ethyl-2-methoxyphenol (smoky, clove).
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Clove + cidertop 6% of all pairsAroma overlapmoderateMentioned together756 recipes
Shared aroma: ethyl octanoate (fruity, wine).
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Mace + peppertop 6% of all pairsAroma overlapmoderateMentioned together12,257 recipes
Shared aroma: myristicin (spice, warm).
Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs
What each ingredient does
- Veal
- Forms the main meat that becomes tender during slow, covered cooking.
- Bacon
- Adds fat and savoury flavour as it melts into the meat while it cooks.
- Butter
- Conducts heat for browning the veal and adds richness to the dish.
- Browned flour
- Thickens the gravy and adds a toasted, nutty flavour.
- Cider vinegar
- Adds acidity that brightens and balances the rich gravy.
- Bay leaves
- Contribute an aromatic herbal flavour to the braising liquid.
The step that matters
Brown the veal on both sides until yellow-brown. Browning creates deep flavour through the Maillard reaction, which needs a dry, hot surface. Crowding the pan or leaving moisture on the meat causes steaming instead, leaving the gravy pale and flat.
Flavor stand-ins for the mace
How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (veal, butter, clove, cider, vinegar, flour, pepper):
- Allspicebetter flavor fit
- Cinnamonbetter flavor fit
- Thymebetter flavor fit
- Macethe original
Fit is the average pairing score against veal, butter, clove, cider, vinegar, flour, pepper. Candidates are from the same food group and used in at least 100 recipes. This compares flavor only: it does not check the job the ingredient does in the dish (bulk, moisture, acidity, structure).
“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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