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Minced Veal

A veal dish simmered with water, onion, lemon peel, mace, carrots, herbs, thickened with butter and flour, finished with lemon juice and cream.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 11 ingredients
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Why it works: Onion and carrot are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 6% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 21,601 recipes. Both carry 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine, which smells earthy, pea. The science ↓

Minced Veal

Ingredients

Directions

Make the stock

  1. If there are any bones, dredge them with flour and place them in a stewpan with the brown side up, along with some meat trimmings.

  2. Add the water, onion, lemon peel, seasoning, mace, carrots, and herbs; simmer for just over 1 hour and then strain the liquid.

Make the gravy

  1. Rub a little flour into some butter, add it to the gravy, and bring it to a boil, skimming well.

  2. Finely mince the veal instead of chopping it, then add it to the gravy and warm it through gradually.

  3. If desired, add more finely minced lemon peel to the veal after it is warmed in the gravy.

Finish and serve

  1. Stir in the lemon juice and cream, then serve garnished with toasted bread slices and rolled, toasted bacon slices.

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

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

  2. Lemon + carrottop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together3,351 recipes

    Shared aroma: trans-2-nonenal (cardboard, fatty).

  3. White pepper + macetop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,695 recipes

    Shared aroma: myrcene (balsamic, herbaceous).

  4. Butter + flourtop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together124,287 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  5. Carrot + flourtop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together8,029 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

Butter and flour 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
Provides the main meat, which becomes tender and flavourful as it is gently warmed in the gravy.
Butter and flour
Thickens the gravy into a smooth, lightly coating sauce as the roux cooks.
Cream
Adds richness and a silkier, rounder texture to the finished gravy.
Lemon juice
Adds acidity that brightens the flavour and balances the richness of the gravy.
Carrots
Release sweetness and body into the stock as they simmer.

The step that matters

Warming the minced veal in the gravy. Adding the meat to a boiling gravy can toughen it and make it dry. Warming it gradually over gentle heat keeps it tender and moist.

Swap the white pepper

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

  1. Parsleyfits better
  2. Marjoramfits better
  3. Thymefits better
  4. White pepperthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against veal, onion, lemon, mace, carrot, butter, flour. 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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