Why it works: Butter and bread are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 7% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 27,232 recipes. Both carry delta-decalactone, which smells sweet, creamy. The science ↓
Sauce Jor Minced or Hashed Veal
Ingredients
Directions
Prepare
Dredge the veal bones with flour and place them in a stewpan.
Add broth or water, onion, lemon peel, salt, and mace.
Mix flour into melted butter.
Stir the mixture into the broth.
Make the sauce
Bring to a gentle boil for about 30 minutes, then strain through a sieve.
Warm the strained sauce with the meat by placing the stewpan by the fire.
Squeeze in the juice of half a lemon.
Serve
Cover the bottom of the serving dish with toasted bread snippets and garnish with ham or bacon.
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.
-
Butter + breadtop 7% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together27,232 recipes
Shared aroma: delta-decalactone (sweet, creamy).
-
Bread + hamtop 7% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together2,536 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-acetyl-1-pyrroline (popcorn, roasted).
-
Flour + buttertop 12% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together124,287 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
-
Onion + buttertop 15% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together42,912 recipes
Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).
-
Onion + breadtop 15% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together8,676 recipes
Shared aroma: 2,4-decadienal (seaweed).
Flour and butter 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
- Veal bones
- Release meaty flavour into the broth as the sauce simmers.
- Flour
- Thickens the sauce as its starch swells in the hot liquid.
- Broth
- Forms the liquid base that carries the sauce's flavour.
- Butter
- Adds richness and a smooth, silky mouthfeel to the sauce.
- Lemon juice
- Adds acidity that brightens the sauce and balances its richness.
- Mace
- Adds a warm, aromatic spice note to the sauce.
The step that matters
Mixing flour into the butter before adding the broth. Flour clumps when it meets hot liquid unless its starch granules are first coated in fat and spread out. Coating them in melted butter first helps the flour disperse evenly, so the sauce thickens smoothly without lumps.
Swap the mace
How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (veal, flour, onion, lemon, butter, bread, ham):
- Parsleyfits better
- Capersfits better
- Thymefits better
- Macethe original
Fit is the average pairing score against veal, flour, onion, lemon, butter, bread, ham. 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.
You might also like
The free Flavor Lab newsletter: one surprising pairing a week and the molecular reason it works, in 60 seconds. No spam, unsubscribe anytime.
Prefer an account? Create a free account to save pairings and unlock the full chemistry.
Brown Bread461 recipes
Lemon Sauce236 recipes
White Bread80 recipes
Bread Omelette60 recipes