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Veal Gravy

A rich veal gravy made by simmering veal knuckle, neck, bacon, herbs, and pepper, then strained and finished with mace.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 9 ingredients
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Why it works: Parsley and thyme match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 9,057 recipes. Both carry cuminaldehyde, which smells Spicy, cumin. The science ↓

Veal Gravy

Ingredients

Directions

Make the stock

  1. Divide the bones of the knuckle of veal and place them in a stew pot.

  2. Add the scrag of neck, lean bacon, parsley, thyme, lemon peel, and black pepper.

  3. Cover with water and bring to a boil, skimming off any foam.

  4. Cover the pot tightly and let it simmer on low heat for 3 hours.

Strain and finish

  1. Strain the mixture and let it cool.

  2. Skim off the fat and collect the jelly from the sediment.

  3. Pound some mace finely, boil it with 2 spoonfuls of water, and add it to the gravy.

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. Parsley + thymetop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together9,057 recipes

    Shared aroma: cuminaldehyde (Spicy, cumin).

  2. Parsley + lemontop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together14,037 recipes

    Shared aroma: beta-phellandrene (minty, terpene).

  3. Thyme + lemontop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together3,973 recipes

    Shared aroma: beta-phellandrene (minty, terpene).

  4. Parsley + peppertop 2% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together34,122 recipes

    Shared aroma: 4'-methylacetophenone (bitter almond).

  5. Lemon + peppertop 3% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together27,047 recipes

    Shared aroma: trans-2-nonenal (cardboard, fatty).

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

What each ingredient does

Knuckle of veal
Its bones and connective tissue release gelatin, giving the gravy body and a jelly-like set.
Scrag of neck
Adds meat and collagen that break down during simmering, enriching the flavour and body of the gravy.
Lean bacon
Contributes savoury, smoky flavour to the stock without adding much fat.
Black pepper
Adds gentle heat and aromatic pungency to the savoury stock.

The step that matters

Simmer gently with the lid on. A tightly covered pot on low heat keeps the liquid just below a boil, so collagen and gelatin extract slowly and the stock stays clear rather than cloudy and greasy.

Swap the mace

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

  1. Marjoramfits better
  2. Sagefits better
  3. Winter savoryfits better
  4. Macethe original

Fit is the average pairing score against veal, parsley, thyme, lemon, 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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