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Blanquette of Veal

A creamy veal dish with mushrooms, finished with egg yolks and parsley.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 9 ingredients
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Why it works: Parsley and pepper match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 2% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 34,122 recipes. Both carry 4'-methylacetophenone, which smells bitter almond. The science ↓

Blanquette of Veal

Ingredients

Directions

Make the sauce

  1. Melt the butter in a saucepan over low heat without browning.

  2. Add the flour and stir until smooth.

  3. Pour in the stock and cream, stirring until the sauce begins to thicken.

  4. Add the chopped veal and mushrooms, stirring until the sauce thickens.

Finish and serve

  1. Remove from heat and gently stir in the beaten egg yolks and parsley.

  2. Cook for one minute only to avoid separating the eggs from the sauce.

  3. Garnish with whole mushrooms heated in their own liquid before serving.

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

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

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

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

  3. Butter + creamtop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together41,516 recipes

    Shared aroma: delta-dodecalactone (sweet, creamy).

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

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

  5. Mushroom + parsleytop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together6,132 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2,4-decadienal (seaweed).

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

What each ingredient does

Egg yolks
Thicken the sauce and add richness when gently heated.
Flour
Thickens the butter and stock mixture into a smooth base for the sauce.
Cream
Adds fat and richness, giving the sauce a smooth, mellow body.
Butter
Provides fat and flavor as the base for the roux.
Cooked veal
Supplies the main meat and savory flavor of the dish.

The step that matters

Cook for one minute only after adding the egg yolks. Egg yolks thicken through gentle heat, but overheating scrambles them and makes the sauce grainy or separated. Keeping the cooking brief protects the smooth texture.

Swap the parsley

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (butter, flour, cream, egg, mushroom, pepper, veal):

  1. Nutmegfits about as well
  2. Parsleythe original
  3. Tarragonfits about as well
  4. Thymefits about as well

Fit is the average pairing score against butter, flour, cream, egg, mushroom, pepper, veal. 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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