Why it works: Pork and veal are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 11% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 4,930 recipes. Both carry 4-heptenal, which smells creamy, biscuit. The science ↓
Fricassee of Veal
Ingredients
Directions
Brown the meat
Fry the salt pork until brown and remove it from the pan.
Add the thin slices of veal to the remaining fat, season with salt and pepper, and fry until brown.
Make the gravy
Mix the dry flour with the fat in the pan until there are no lumps and it turns brown.
Add the boiling water to the flour mixture and season with salt and pepper.
Return the veal to the gravy and simmer for 15 minutes.
Serve
Serve the veal with the gravy poured over it.
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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Pork + vealtop 11% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together4,930 recipes
Shared aroma: 4-heptenal (creamy, biscuit).
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Pork + peppertop 16% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together22,121 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).
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Pepper + flourtop 19% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together50,459 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, 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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Pork + flourtop 27% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together11,187 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
Pork and flour barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 11,187 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
- Is the main meat, becoming tender and flavorful as it fries and then simmers in the gravy.
- Dry flour
- Thickens the pan fat and water into a smooth gravy as it cooks and browns.
- Salt pork
- Renders fat for frying the veal and adds savory, salty flavor to the dish.
The step that matters
Browning the flour in the fat. Cooking the flour until no lumps remain and it turns brown lets it thicken smoothly and adds a toasty, nutty flavor. Adding water too early can leave lumps.
“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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