Why it works: Pepper and lemon match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 3% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 27,047 recipes. Both carry trans-2-nonenal, which smells cardboard, fatty. The science ↓
Stewed Veal
Ingredients
Directions
Prepare
Cut the veal cutlet into small pieces.
Season with pepper, salt, grated lemon peel, and nutmeg if desired.
Cook
Add enough water to nearly cover the veal and cook slowly until half done.
Make a rich gravy by rolling pieces of butter in flour and adding it to the cooking water.
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.
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Pepper + lemontop 3% of all pairsSmell alikestrongCooked together27,047 recipes
Shared aroma: trans-2-nonenal (cardboard, fatty).
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Lemon + nutmegtop 5% of all pairsSmell alikestrongCooked together11,318 recipes
Shared aroma: beta-phellandrene (minty, terpene).
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Pepper + nutmegtop 7% of all pairsSmell alikestrongCooked together13,015 recipes
Shared aroma: 4'-methylacetophenone (bitter almond).
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Nutmeg + flourtop 8% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together18,623 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
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Butter + flourtop 12% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together124,287 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
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
- Veal cutlet
- Provides the meat that becomes tender as it simmers slowly in water.
- Butter
- Adds richness and fat to the gravy, giving it a smooth, mellow mouthfeel.
- Flour
- Thickens the cooking liquid into a gravy when rolled with butter and stirred in.
The step that matters
Adding the butter and flour to the cooking water. Butter rolled in flour and added to hot liquid thickens into a gravy. Added in lumps or too quickly, the flour can clump, so it should be stirred in gradually to blend smoothly.
“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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