Why it works: Parsley and lemon match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 14,037 recipes. Both carry beta-phellandrene, which smells minty, terpene. The science ↓
Veal, Neck Of, Stewed
Ingredients
Directions
Prepare
Trim the meat and saw the long bones across to detach the rib bones.
Fry or broil the bacon and cut it into dice.
Bake or broil the tomatoes until tender but not too soft.
Braise the meat
Melt the butter in a stewpan and lightly fry the meat on both sides.
Add the lemon rind, parsley, and a good seasoning of pepper, cover, and cook gently for 2 to 2.5 hours, basting frequently.
Remove the meat from the stewpan, brush it lightly with meat glaze, and keep it warm.
Make the sauce and serve
Mix the flour smoothly with a little cold stock.
Add the mixture to the boiling stock in a stewpan.
Stir and boil for 5 minutes.
Strain the stock.
Add the butter from cooking the meat, lemon juice, and cream.
Season to taste, bring to a boil, and serve in a tureen, garnished with bacon and tomatoes.
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.
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Parsley + lemontop 1% of all pairsSmell alikestrongCooked together14,037 recipes
Shared aroma: beta-phellandrene (minty, terpene).
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Parsley + peppertop 2% of all pairsSmell alikestrongCooked together34,122 recipes
Shared aroma: 4'-methylacetophenone (bitter almond).
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Lemon + peppertop 3% of all pairsSmell alikestrongCooked together27,047 recipes
Shared aroma: trans-2-nonenal (cardboard, fatty).
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Tomato + peppertop 7% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together17,923 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).
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Butter + creamtop 8% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together41,516 recipes
Shared aroma: delta-dodecalactone (sweet, creamy).
Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs
What each ingredient does
- Neck of veal
- Slow cooking over two hours turns the tough connective tissue tender and gives the stew body.
- White stock
- Forms the liquid base of the stew and the sauce, carrying flavour through the dish.
- Butter
- Adds richness and carries flavour when frying the meat and finishing the sauce.
- Flour
- Thickens the stock into a smooth sauce as it boils.
- Bacon
- Adds smoky, salty fat and savoury flavour as a garnish.
- Cream
- Adds richness and softens the sharpness of the lemon in the finished sauce.
The step that matters
Mixing the flour into the stock. Flour added directly to hot liquid forms lumps that cannot be whisked out, so it must first be blended smoothly with cold stock before being added to the boiling stock.
Swap the tomato
How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (veal, butter, flour, parsley, lemon, pepper, cream):
- Shallotfits better
- Leekfits better
- Spinachfits better
- Tomatothe original
Fit is the average pairing score against veal, butter, flour, parsley, 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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