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Veal Minced with Potatoes

A dish of finely chopped veal mixed with finely chopped boiled potatoes, seasoned and cooked in gravy or water.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 7 ingredients
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Why it works: Potato and pepper are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 9% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 8,305 recipes. Both carry 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine, which smells earthy, pea. The science ↓

Veal Minced with Potatoes

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Chop the cold veal and cold boiled potatoes very fine.

  2. Season with pepper and coarse sea salt to taste.

Moisten and cook

  1. Add veal gravy or hot water to moisten the mixture, along with plenty of butter.

  2. Dredge a little flour over the mixture.

  3. Place it in a stew pan over medium heat and cover tightly.

  4. Cook for 30 minutes until thoroughly heated.

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

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

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

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  3. Potato + buttertop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together6,456 recipes

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

  4. Potato + flourtop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together5,355 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  5. Pepper + flourtop 19% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together50,459 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

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

Cold veal
Provides the main meat body and savory flavor of the dish.
Cold boiled potatoes
Add starch and bulk, helping the mince hold together and feel substantial.
Butter
Adds richness and moisture, carrying flavor through the mixture as it heats.
Flour
Dredged over the mixture to help thicken and bind the moistened mince.

The step that matters

Covering tightly while heating. A tight lid traps steam so the mixture heats through evenly and stays moist, rather than drying out or scorching on the base of the pan.

Swap the potato

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

  1. Shallotfits better
  2. Leekfits about as well
  3. Capsicumfits about as well
  4. Potatothe original

Fit is the average pairing score against veal, pepper, butter, 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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