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Pot Roast of Veal

A slow‑cooked veal roast with carrots, suet, tomatoes, and seasonings, finished with a thickened gravy.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 6 ingredients
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Why it works: Carrot and pepper match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 6% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 14,555 recipes. Both carry 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine, which smells earthy, pea. The science ↓

Pot Roast of Veal

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Render the beef drippings in an iron kettle and remove the cracklings.

  2. Brown the meat slowly, avoiding high heat to prevent sticking and burning.

Braise

  1. Once browned, remove the meat, season it, and add the remaining ingredients to the drippings.

  2. Pour in 1 pint of boiling water or stock, replace the meat, and add bones.

  3. Cover tightly and cook slowly for 3 to 4 hours.

  4. When the meat is tender, remove it and let it cool slightly to avoid falling apart when cut.

Finish the gravy

  1. Thicken the gravy with 1 tablespoon of flour or cornstarch mixed with cold water, boil for 5 minutes, then strain and season with ½ teaspoon Worcestershire sauce.

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. Carrot + peppertop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together14,555 recipes

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

  2. Carrot + tomatotop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together3,606 recipes

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

  3. Tomato + peppertop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together17,923 recipes

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

  4. Veal + carrottop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together3,015 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).

  5. Veal + tomatotop 18% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together709 recipes

    Shared aroma: 3-hexenal (apple, fruity).

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

What each ingredient does

Veal rump
Slow cooking breaks down connective tissue, leaving the meat tender and easy to cut.
Suet
Adds fat that enriches the drippings and gives the gravy a rounder, richer body.
Carrots
Release natural sugars during long cooking, adding mild sweetness and body to the gravy.
Stewed tomatoes
Add acidity and liquid that balance the rich meat and help form the sauce.

The step that matters

Cook slowly under a tight cover. Connective tissue in veal rump breaks down into tender gelatin only with long, gentle heat. Higher heat or an open pot can toughen the meat and reduce the liquid too quickly.

Swap the tomato

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

  1. Capsicumfits better
  2. Parsnipfits better
  3. Turnipfits about as well
  4. Tomatothe original

Fit is the average pairing score against veal, carrot, 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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