Skip to main content
Main

Veal Stew, with Dumplings

A hearty stew of veal, onions, and potatoes served with buttered dumplings.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 11 ingredients
Jump to recipe ↓

Why it works: Onion and potato are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 3% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 9,023 recipes. Both carry 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine, which smells earthy, pea. The science ↓

Veal Stew, with Dumplings

Ingredients

Directions

Cook the veal

  1. Cut the veal into pieces the size of a teacup.

  2. Place the veal, onions, salt, and pepper in a kettle with enough water to just cover them.

  3. Simmer gently for about 1 hour until the meat is tender.

  4. Half an hour before serving, add the halved potatoes and boil them with the meat.

Make the dumplings

  1. For the dumplings, mix the flour, baking powder, and salt in a bowl.

  2. Rub in the lard until well combined.

  3. Add enough milk to moisten the mixture and form a dough.

  4. Roll the dough out to 1 inch thick and cut into biscuit shapes.

  5. Place the dumplings on a plate and set the plate in a steamer over the stew.

  6. Steam the dumplings for 20 minutes.

Serve

  1. Once done, lift the meat and potatoes from the kettle and place them on a platter.

  2. Add the milk and butter to the gravy in the kettle and thicken with a little flour mixed with water.

  3. Pour the gravy over the meat and dumplings.

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. Onion + potatotop 3% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together9,023 recipes

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

  2. Butter + milktop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together81,283 recipes

    Shared aroma: (z)-4-heptenal (biscuit, cream).

  3. Potato + peppertop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together8,305 recipes

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

  4. Potato + milktop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together3,611 recipes

    Shared aroma: (e,z)-2,6-nonadienal (cucumber, melon).

  5. Onion + peppertop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together68,474 recipes

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

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

What each ingredient does

Veal
Provides the main protein, which becomes tender through long, gentle simmering.
Flour
Forms the dumpling structure and, mixed with water, thickens the gravy.
Potatoes
Absorb flavor from the stew and add starchy body to the dish.
Baking powder
Releases gas during steaming, helping the dumplings rise and turn light.
Lard
Rubbed into the flour, it shortens the dough for a tender, crumbly texture.
Milk
Moistens the dumpling dough and enriches the gravy.

The step that matters

Keep the dumplings covered while steaming. Dumplings set by trapping steam; lifting the lid lets steam escape, so they can turn dense and cooked unevenly. Keeping the lid on helps them rise and stay light.

Swap the onion

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (veal, potato, butter, milk, pepper, flour):

  1. Capsicumfits better
  2. Chivefits about as well
  3. Carrotfits about as well
  4. Onionthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against veal, potato, butter, milk, pepper, flour. 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.

You might also like

Potato CroquettesPotato Croquettes255 recipesPotato RollsPotato Rolls78 recipesPotato ChipsPotato Chips53 recipesSweet Potato CroquettesSweet Potato Croquettes53 recipes