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Veal a LA Bourgeoise

A stew of veal with bacon, onions, carrots, and bouquet garni, simmered in stock.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
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Why it works: Carrot and clove match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 5% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 5,873 recipes. Both carry cuminaldehyde, which smells Spicy, cumin. The science ↓

Veal a LA Bourgeoise

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Lard the veal.

Brown and braise the veal

  1. Place the veal in a clean stewpan with the bacon.

  2. Brown the veal lightly on both sides.

  3. Sprinkle with a little salt.

  4. Wait until the meat begins to stick.

  5. Add the stock.

  6. Cover and simmer for 40 minutes.

Add the vegetables

  1. Prepare the button onions and carrot pieces.

  2. Remove the onion and bouquet garni.

  3. Add the button onions and carrot.

  4. If needed, add more stock or hot water.

  5. Cover and simmer for another 30 to 40 minutes.

Serve

  1. Carefully transfer the veal to a hot dish.

  2. Arrange the vegetables around the veal and pour the gravy over it.

  3. If the gravy is too thin, reduce it by boiling and stirring.

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. Carrot + clovetop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together5,873 recipes

    Shared aroma: cuminaldehyde (Spicy, cumin).

  2. Onion + carrottop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together21,601 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).

  3. Onion + clovetop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together16,901 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-nonanone (fruity, floral).

  4. Veal + carrottop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together3,015 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).

  5. Veal + oniontop 17% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together6,841 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2,4-decadienal (seaweed).

Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs

What each ingredient does

Fillet of veal
The main cut; slow simmering turns its connective tissue tender and moist.
Bacon fat
Adds fat and savoury flavour, and helps the veal brown in the pan.
Stock
Forms the liquid that cooks the veal and becomes the gravy.
Button onions
Soften during simmering, adding sweetness and body to the gravy.
Carrot
Adds natural sweetness and colour, and holds its shape during simmering.

The step that matters

Browning the veal before adding stock. Searing until the meat sticks to the pan builds browned flavour compounds and fond. Adding stock too early stops browning and leaves the gravy pale and flat.

Swap the clove

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (veal, onion, carrot):

  1. Celeryfits better
  2. Parsleyfits better
  3. Cuminfits better
  4. Clovethe original

Fit is the average pairing score against veal, onion, carrot. 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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