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 ↓
Mock Chicken
Ingredients
Directions
Cook the veal
Stew the veal shank until well done, seasoning to taste.
Remove the meat from the bone in chunks.
Bread and fry
Roll the chunks in egg, then in breadcrumbs.
Fry in butter until browned, like chicken.
Make the gravy
Remove from skillet and add broth and milk.
Season and thicken for gravy to pour over the meat or serve separately.
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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Egg + buttertop 17% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together118,967 recipes
Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).
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Egg + milktop 18% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together88,785 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).
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Veal + peppertop 19% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together10,049 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).
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Pepper + buttertop 21% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together85,593 recipes
Shared aroma: trans-2-nonenal (cardboard, fatty).
Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs
What each ingredient does
- Veal shank
- Provides the meat, which becomes tender through long stewing and is then shaped into chunks.
- Egg
- Acts as a binder so the breadcrumbs stick to the meat chunks.
- Breadcrumbs
- Form a crisp, browned coating when fried in butter.
- Butter
- Adds fat for frying and promotes browning of the coating.
- Broth
- Provides the liquid base for the gravy, adding savoury flavour.
- Milk
- Adds body and creaminess to the gravy.
The step that matters
Fry in butter until browned. The breadcrumb coating needs enough medium heat and fat to brown evenly. Too little heat leaves it pale and soggy, while too much can scorch the crumbs before the meat is heated through.
“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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