Why it works: Veal and mace are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 18% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 3,761 recipes. Both carry alpha-pinene, which smells pine, turpentine. The science ↓
To Pot Veal
Ingredients
Directions
Remove all fiber and skin from the veal.
Cut the veal into thin slices, crossing the grain.
Add finely powdered mace and coarse sea salt to the veal.
Mix in a bit of butter.
If desired, add a little strong stock, but it's better not to use it for preservation.
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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Veal + macetop 18% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together3,761 recipes
Shared aroma: alpha-pinene (pine, turpentine).
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Mace + buttertop 22% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together11,405 recipes
Shared aroma: linalool (floral, citrus).
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Veal + buttertop 23% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together9,381 recipes
Shared aroma: 3-hexenal (apple, fruity).
Mace and butter barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 11,405 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
Swap the mace
How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (veal, butter):
- Sagefits better
- Parsleyfits better
- Capersfits better
- Macethe original
Fit is the average pairing score against veal, butter. Candidates are from the same food group and used in at least 100 recipes.
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