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French Stew of Veal

A French stew of veal, eggs, allspice, and wine, simmered in a buttery broth.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 10 ingredients
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Why it works: Allspice and pepper match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 5% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 6,395 recipes. Both carry estragole, which smells anise, licorice. The science ↓

French Stew of Veal

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the veal

  1. Boil the knuckle of veal in enough water to cover it, adding a little salt.

  2. Once the veal is tender, pour off the water and save it.

  3. Cut the veal into small pieces and place it in a pan with the reserved water.

Make the stew

  1. Add the chopped hard-boiled eggs, crushed allspice, butter, mace, pepper, and salt.

  2. Stir the flour smoothly in a little water and pour it into the pan.

  3. Set the pan over the fire and let it boil for 2–3 minutes.

  4. Pour in the wine and serve hot.

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. Allspice + peppertop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together6,395 recipes

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

  2. Allspice + macetop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together3,189 recipes

    Shared aroma: methyleugenol (clove, spice).

  3. Butter + flourtop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together124,287 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  4. Allspice + flourtop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together4,302 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  5. Butter + winetop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together8,645 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-furfurylthiol (coffee, roasted).

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 knuckle
Provides the meat and gelatin that give the stew its body and richness.
Hard-boiled eggs
Add body and a rich, slightly thickened texture to the stew.
Butter
Adds fat for richness and a silky mouthfeel.
Flour
Thickens the cooking liquid into a smooth, lightly bodied sauce.
Wine
Adds acidity and depth of flavour to the sauce.
Allspice
Contributes warm, aromatic spice flavour.

The step that matters

Stirring the flour smoothly into water before adding it. Flour added directly to hot liquid clumps, because its starch granules hydrate unevenly. Making a smooth slurry first lets the starch disperse evenly so the sauce thickens without lumps once it boils.

Swap the mace

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

  1. Nutmegfits better
  2. Thymefits better
  3. Parsleyfits better
  4. Macethe original

Fit is the average pairing score against veal, egg, allspice, butter, pepper, flour, wine. 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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