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Veal Steaks with Mushroom Sauce

Veal steaks served with a mushroom sauce made from butter, browned flour, mushroom liquor, beef stock, Worcestershire sauce, salt, pepper, and canned mushrooms.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 9 ingredients
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Why it works: Mushroom and beef are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 4% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 3,232 recipes. Both carry 2,4-nonadienal, which smells fatty, green. The science ↓

Veal Steaks with Mushroom Sauce

Ingredients

Directions

Cook the veal

  1. Broil the veal steaks slowly over a clear fire, turning often to prevent scorching.

  2. Keep the cooked steaks hot on a platter in the oven.

Make the mushroom sauce

  1. In a pan, cook the butter and browned flour together until dark brown.

  2. Pour in the mushroom liquor and beef stock, stirring to create a smooth sauce.

  3. Season with Worcestershire sauce, salt, and pepper, then add the halved mushrooms.

  4. Cook for two minutes, stirring constantly, then pour the sauce over the veal steaks.

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. Mushroom + beeftop 4% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together3,232 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2,4-nonadienal (fatty, green).

  2. Butter + mushroomtop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together12,525 recipes

    Shared aroma: trans-2-decenal (waxy, orange).

  3. Beef + peppertop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together18,971 recipes

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

  4. Veal + beeftop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together3,784 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2,6-nonadienal (cucumber, green).

  5. Mushroom + peppertop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together13,580 recipes

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

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

What each ingredient does

Veal steaks
Form the main protein, browning over high heat for a savory crust.
Butter
Provides fat and richness, carrying flavor into the sauce base.
Browned flour
Thickens the sauce and adds a deeper, nutty color and flavor.
Mushroom liquor
Adds earthy mushroom flavor and liquid that loosens the sauce.
Beef stock
Supplies the liquid base and savory depth for the sauce.

The step that matters

Cooking the butter and browned flour until dark brown. The flour roux must cook long enough to develop color and flavor, but not burn. Dark color gives the sauce its nutty taste, while burnt flour turns bitter and cannot be fixed.

“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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