Why it works: Milk and butter are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 7% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 81,283 recipes. Both carry (z)-4-heptenal, which smells biscuit, cream. The science ↓
Veal Tendons
Ingredients
Directions
The book gives no oven temperature. The 300°F (150°C) in the steps was added when the recipe was transcribed, as a starting point.
Prepare
Cut the veal into serving pieces and place them in a fireproof stewing pot.
Season with salt and pepper, then add the onion and mace.
Cook
Pour in the milk, cover tightly, and cook gently in the oven at 300°F (150°C) or on the stove for 2 to 3 hours.
Thicken and serve
Knead the butter and flour or cornflour together until smooth.
Divide the mixture into small portions and stir them into the milk in the pot.
If using flour, allow it to cook for at least 10 minutes before serving.
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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Milk + buttertop 7% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together81,283 recipes
Shared aroma: (z)-4-heptenal (biscuit, cream).
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Cream + buttertop 8% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together41,516 recipes
Shared aroma: delta-dodecalactone (sweet, creamy).
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Onion + peppertop 11% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together68,474 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).
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Butter + flourtop 12% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together124,287 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
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Milk + flourtop 14% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together78,219 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 neck or breast
- Provides the meat and connective tissue that becomes tender during long, gentle cooking.
- Milk
- Cooks slowly around the veal, forming the base of the sauce and keeping the meat moist.
- Butter and flour or cornflour
- Kneaded together and stirred in to thicken the milk into a smooth, lightly textured sauce.
- Cream
- Adds richness and a softer, smoother mouthfeel to the finished sauce.
The step that matters
Stirring in the butter and flour mixture. Adding the flour as small portions, stirred into hot liquid, helps prevent lumps. Flour needs enough cooking time to lose its raw starchy taste and to thicken fully, which is why the record asks for at least 10 minutes when flour is used.
Swap the mace
How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (veal, milk, cream, butter, flour, onion, pepper):
- Nutmegfits better
- Parsleyfits better
- Garlicfits better
- Macethe original
Fit is the average pairing score against veal, milk, cream, butter, flour, onion, 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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