Skip to main content
Main

Knuckle of Veal Ragout, or with Rice

A slow‑cooked veal knuckle ragout thickened with a roux, served over rice or with vegetables.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 10 ingredients
Jump to recipe ↓

Why it works: Carrot and celery match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 10,173 recipes. Both carry myristicin, which smells spice, warm. The science ↓

Knuckle of Veal Ragout, or with Rice

Ingredients

Directions

The book gives no cooking times; the times in the steps were added in transcription, so check for doneness rather than trusting the clock.

Make the broth

  1. In a large pot, combine the knuckle of veal, water, onion, carrots, celery, bay leaf, salt, and pepper.

  2. Bring to a boil, then reduce heat and simmer for 2 hours until the meat is tender.

  3. Remove the veal and strain the broth.

Make the sauce and serve

  1. In a pan, melt butter and stir in flour to make a roux.

  2. Gradually add the strained broth to the roux, stirring until thickened.

  3. Serve the veal with the sauce over rice or alongside vegetables.

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 + celerytop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together10,173 recipes

    Shared aroma: myristicin (spice, warm).

  2. Celery + peppertop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together16,012 recipes

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

  3. Carrot + peppertop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together14,555 recipes

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

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

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

  5. Onion + celerytop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together18,518 recipes

    Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).

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

What each ingredient does

Veal knuckle
Provides the meat and collagen-rich body that flavours the broth as it simmers.
Flour
Thickens the butter and broth into a smooth sauce when cooked as a roux.
Butter
Carries the flour in the roux and adds richness to the sauce.
Onion
Adds savoury sweetness and aroma to the broth as it simmers.
Carrots
Add gentle sweetness and body to the broth during simmering.

The step that matters

Adding the broth to the roux. Adding liquid all at once or too quickly can form lumps, because flour clumps when it meets liquid without being dispersed. Adding the broth gradually while stirring lets the starch hydrate evenly and thicken into a smooth sauce.

Swap the onion

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (veal, carrot, celery, pepper, flour, butter):

  1. Parsnipfits better
  2. Turnipfits better
  3. Leekfits better
  4. Onionthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against veal, carrot, celery, pepper, flour, butter. 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.

More veal ragout recipes

Cold 13 See all 73 →

You might also like

Carrot SoupCarrot Soup134 recipesCream of Celery SoupCream of Celery Soup113 recipesVeal PattiesVeal Patties50 recipesCelery StewCelery Stew25 recipes