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Veal Gravy

A savory veal gravy made by simmering veal bones, neck, bacon, herbs, and spices, then strained and finished with mace and optional cream.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 11 ingredients
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Why it works: Parsley and thyme match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 9,057 recipes. Both carry cuminaldehyde, which smells Spicy, cumin. The science ↓

Veal Gravy

Ingredients

Directions

Make the stock

  1. Divide the bones from the knuckle of veal and place them in a stewpot with the scrag of neck.

  2. Add the bacon, parsley, thyme, lemon peel, and black pepper.

  3. Pour in enough water to cover the ingredients.

  4. Boil the mixture and skim the surface.

  5. Cover the pot tightly and let it simmer for three hours.

  6. Strain the mixture and let it cool.

Finish the gravy

  1. Skim off the fat and collect the jelly from the sediment.

  2. Pound the mace finely.

  3. Boil the mace with 2 tablespoons of water.

  4. Add the mace mixture to the gravy.

  5. If using cream, do not add salt until the gravy is off the heat.

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. Parsley + thymetop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together9,057 recipes

    Shared aroma: cuminaldehyde (Spicy, cumin).

  2. Parsley + lemontop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together14,037 recipes

    Shared aroma: beta-phellandrene (minty, terpene).

  3. Thyme + lemontop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together3,973 recipes

    Shared aroma: beta-phellandrene (minty, terpene).

  4. Parsley + peppertop 2% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together34,122 recipes

    Shared aroma: 4'-methylacetophenone (bitter almond).

  5. Lemon + peppertop 3% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together27,047 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

Bones from a knuckle of veal
Release gelatin and body into the liquid, giving the gravy its jelly and richness.
Scrag of neck
Adds meat flavor and gelatin to the stock as it simmers.
Lean bacon
Adds savory, smoky depth to the stock.
Mace
Adds warm, aromatic flavor to the finished gravy.

The step that matters

Skim the surface after boiling. Skimming removes foam and impurities that would otherwise cloud the stock and taint its flavor. Skimming off fat after cooling keeps the gravy clean-tasting and lets the gelatin set into a clear jelly.

Swap the mace

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (veal, parsley, thyme, lemon, pepper, cream):

  1. Marjoramfits better
  2. Sagefits better
  3. Tarragonfits better
  4. Macethe original

Fit is the average pairing score against veal, parsley, thyme, lemon, pepper, cream. 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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