Why it works: Butter and milk are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 7% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 81,283 recipes. Both carry (z)-4-heptenal, which smells biscuit, cream. The science ↓
German Curry of Veal
Ingredients
Directions
Prepare the veal and onions
Roll the veal pieces in flour.
Fry the veal pieces in butter until browned.
Fry the chopped onions until soft.
Combine the veal and onions in a saucepan.
Stew the curry
Add salt.
Cover with milk.
Stew the mixture very slowly for 2 hours.
Stir in the curry powder.
Thicken the sauce with flour.
Ensure the sauce becomes smooth and thick.
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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Butter + milktop 7% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together81,283 recipes
Shared aroma: (z)-4-heptenal (biscuit, cream).
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Butter + flourtop 12% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together124,287 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
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Milk + flourtop 14% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together78,219 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
-
Butter + oniontop 15% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together42,912 recipes
Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).
-
Veal + oniontop 17% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together6,841 recipes
Shared aroma: 2,4-decadienal (seaweed).
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
- Provides the main meat, which becomes tender during the long, slow stew.
- Onions
- Soften and sweeten as they cook, adding body to the sauce.
- Milk
- Forms the liquid base of the sauce and keeps the meat moist during stewing.
- Flour
- Thickens the sauce so it becomes smooth and clings to the meat.
- Curry powder
- Gives the sauce its spiced, aromatic flavor.
The step that matters
Stew the mixture very slowly for 2 hours. Milk scorches and can curdle if boiled hard, and lean veal toughens when cooked fast. A very gentle simmer keeps the milk smooth and lets the meat become tender.
Swap the onion
How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (veal, butter, milk, flour):
- Potatofits better
- Leekfits better
- Shallotfits better
- Onionthe original
Fit is the average pairing score against veal, butter, milk, 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.
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