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A LA Poulette

A stew of calves' tails simmered with carrots, onions, herbs, mushrooms, and truffle, served in a croustade.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 11 ingredients
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Why it works: Carrot and parsley match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and 8,053 recipes mention both. Both carry myristicin, which smells spice, warm. The science ↓

The recipe

Ingredients

Contains: shellfish (auto-detected from the ingredients and method; we can miss things, so check labels)

Also mentioned in the method: scallop

Directions

Prepare the tails

  1. Scald the calves' tails with the skin on.

  2. Cut the calves' tails into joints.

  3. Parboil the joints in water for 5 minutes.

  4. Immerse the joints in cold water.

  5. Drain the tails on a napkin.

  6. Trim the tails.

Stew

  1. Place the tails in a stewpan.

  2. Add carrot, onion, parsley, cloves, mace, and peppercorns to the stewpan.

  3. Moisten the stew with broth or water.

  4. If using water, add salt.

  5. Boil gently for about 1 hour.

  6. Drain the cooked tails.

  7. Trim the tails neatly.

Assemble and serve

  1. Arrange the tails in a pyramidal form in a croustade.

  2. Pour over a rich sauce containing the button mushrooms.

  3. Garnish the edge of the croustade with fluted scallops of red tongue.

  4. Glaze the truffle on top 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 aroma chemistry they share, and how many recipes mention both.

  1. Carrot + parsleytop 1% of all pairs
    Aroma overlapstrong
    Mentioned together8,053 recipes

    Shared aroma: myristicin (spice, warm).

  2. Mushroom + truffletop 2% of all pairs
    Aroma overlapmoderate
    Mentioned together1,900 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2,4-nonadienal (fatty, green).

  3. Clove + macetop 2% of all pairs
    Aroma overlapstrong
    Mentioned together8,199 recipes

    Shared aroma: methyleugenol (clove, spice).

  4. Carrot + clovetop 3% of all pairs
    Aroma overlapstrong
    Mentioned together4,916 recipes

    Shared aroma: cuminaldehyde (Spicy, cumin).

  5. Carrot + oniontop 4% of all pairs
    Aroma overlapstrong
    Mentioned together21,599 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

Calves' tails
Provide the main meat and gelatinous body that gives the stew its richness and texture.
Button mushrooms
Add savoury, earthy flavour and body to the rich sauce.
Black truffle
Adds a concentrated, aromatic earthy flavour to the finished dish.

The step that matters

Parboil the joints and cool them in cold water. Parboiling and then chilling the joints firms the surface and removes impurities and scum, so the stew stays clean-flavoured and the tails hold their shape during the long gentle boil.

Flavor stand-ins for the onion

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (carrot, parsley, clove, mace, mushroom, truffle):

  1. Capsicumbetter flavor fit
  2. Potatobetter flavor fit
  3. Shallotbetter flavor fit
  4. Onionthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against carrot, parsley, clove, mace, mushroom, truffle. Candidates are from the same food group and used in at least 100 recipes. This compares flavor only: it does not check the job the ingredient does in the dish (bulk, moisture, acidity, structure).

“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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