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A Nice Ragout of Cold Veal

A ragout of cold veal cutlets simmered in a butter‑flour gravy with onion, pepper, mace, and catsup.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 7 ingredients
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Why it works: Onion and pepper are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 11% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 68,474 recipes. Both carry 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine, which smells earthy, pea. The science ↓

A Nice Ragout of Cold Veal

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the veal

  1. Cut the cold veal into small, round cutlets, trimming off rough parts and bones.

Make the gravy

  1. In a pot, combine the bones, trimmings, and onion to make gravy.

  2. Melt butter in a frying pan.

  3. Flour and brown the veal cutlets until light brown.

  4. Remove the cutlets from the pan.

  5. Strain the gravy into the pan.

  6. Thicken the gravy with butter rolled in flour until smooth.

Finish and serve

  1. Add the cutlets back to the pan.

  2. Let them simmer slowly.

  3. Season with pepper, mace, and catsup.

  4. Skim the sauce.

  5. Pour it hot over the cutlets.

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 + peppertop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together68,474 recipes

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

  2. Butter + flourtop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together124,287 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  3. Onion + buttertop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together42,912 recipes

    Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).

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

    Shared aroma: myristicin (spice, warm).

  5. Onion + macetop 17% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together7,078 recipes

    Shared aroma: eugenol (clove, spicy).

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

Cold veal
Forms the main body of the dish, cut into cutlets that hold their shape in the sauce.
Butter
Browns the flour and enriches the gravy, adding richness and a smooth texture.
Flour
Browns the veal lightly and thickens the gravy so it coats the cutlets.
Onion
Adds savory depth and aroma to the gravy made from the bones and trimmings.
Catsup
Adds sweetness and acidity to season the sauce.

The step that matters

Thicken the gravy with butter rolled in flour until smooth. Flour must be cooked in fat and whisked into hot liquid, or it clumps and leaves a raw, pasty taste. Smooth thickening also keeps the sauce glossy and even.

Swap the mace

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

  1. Parsleyfits better
  2. Turmericfits better
  3. Sagefits better
  4. Macethe original

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