Name: Veal Hash with Cream Sauce
Ingredients: veal, minced fine; 1 onion, chopped; a little parsley, chopped; stock, as needed; butter, as needed; 2 eggs; cream sauce, for serving

Why it works: Butter and cream are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 8% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 41,516 recipes. Both carry delta-dodecalactone, which smells sweet, creamy. The science ↓

Veal Hash with Cream Sauce

Ingredients

Directions

The book gives no oven temperature. The 350°F (175°C) in the steps was added when the recipe was transcribed, as a starting point.

Prepare

Preheat the oven to 350°F (175°C).
In a bowl, combine the minced veal, chopped onion, and parsley.
Moisten the mixture with stock and add bits of butter.
Beat the eggs and mix them into the veal mixture.

Bake and serve

Transfer the mixture to a baking dish and bake for 30 minutes.
Serve hot with cream 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.

Butter + creamtop 8% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together41,516 recipes

Shared aroma: delta-dodecalactone (sweet, creamy).
Onion + parsleytop 9% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together25,843 recipes

Shared aroma: 2,4-decadienal (seaweed).
Cream + saucetop 9% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together4,787 recipes

Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).
Butter + saucetop 15% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together15,338 recipes

Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).
Onion + buttertop 15% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together42,912 recipes

Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).

Butter and sauce barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 15,338 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

Veal: Forms the main body of the hash and provides its meaty texture.
Eggs: Bind the mixture so it holds together and sets as it bakes.
Stock: Adds moisture so the veal stays tender rather than drying out in the oven.
Butter: Adds fat and richness, melting through the mixture as it bakes.
Onion: Contributes aroma and a mild sweetness as it cooks in the mixture.

The step that matters

Moisten the mixture with stock and add bits of butter. Minced veal is lean and dries out easily in the oven. Adding stock and butter before baking supplies moisture and fat, which keeps the hash tender and juicy during the long bake.

Swap the parsley

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (veal, onion, butter, egg, cream, sauce):

Capersfits better
Nutmegfits about as well
Tarragonfits about as well
Parsleythe original

Fit is the average pairing score against veal, onion, butter, egg, cream, sauce. 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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Brown Bread461 recipes

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Veal Hash with Cream Sauce