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Fricandeau

A braised meat dish cooked with bacon, carrots, onions, and gravy, finished with a glazed finish.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 10 ingredients
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Why it works: Carrot and pepper match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 6% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 14,555 recipes. Both carry 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine, which smells earthy, pea. The science ↓

Fricandeau

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Lard the skewers with fat bacon or insert bacon slices into the fillet using a skewer.

  2. Place trimmings, carrot, onion, salt, sugar, and pepper in a stew-pan.

  3. Add the fillets on top of the vegetables and pour in ½ pint of gravy.

Braise

  1. Bring to a boil and simmer until the broth thickens.

  2. Add 1 pint more gravy and let it simmer for 1 hour, half-covered.

  3. Cover the pan.

  4. Place live charcoal on the lid.

  5. Baste every 5 minutes until glazed.

Serve

  1. Remove the fricandeau, strain the gravy, skim off grease, and pour over the meat before serving.

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

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

  2. Carrot + oniontop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together21,601 recipes

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

  3. Onion + peppertop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together68,474 recipes

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

  4. Meat + oniontop 17% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together6,364 recipes

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

  5. Meat + carrottop 19% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together1,905 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 meat
Forms the main body of the dish, which becomes tender through slow, moist cooking.
Fat bacon
Adds fat and moisture to the lean meat as it melts and bastes it during cooking.
Gravy
Forms the braising liquid, keeping the meat moist and building a rich, savoury glaze.
Carrot
Flavours the braising liquid with sweetness and aroma as it softens.
Onion
Adds savoury depth and aroma to the braising liquid as it cooks down.

The step that matters

Baste every 5 minutes until glazed. Repeated basting keeps the surface moist while the reduced liquid concentrates and browns, forming a glossy glaze. Letting the surface dry out can leave it dull or tough.

Swap the onion

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (meat, carrot, sugar, pepper):

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

Fit is the average pairing score against meat, carrot, sugar, pepper. 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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