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Breaf of Veal in Hodge Podge

A veal stew cooked with peas, lettuce, mace, peppercorns, sweet herbs, and onion.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 11 ingredients
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Why it works: Peas and lettuce match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 5% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 1,293 recipes. Both carry 2-isobutyl-3-methoxypyrazine, which smells green bell pepper, earthy. The science ↓

Breaf of Veal in Hodge Podge

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the veal

  1. Cut the breast of veal into small pieces and separate the bones.

  2. Flour the veal pieces.

Brown and simmer

  1. In a large pan, melt the butter over medium heat.

  2. Once hot, add the veal and fry until golden brown.

  3. Pour boiling water into the pan to cover the veal.

  4. Add the peas, lettuce, mace, pepper, sweet herbs, and onion.

  5. Cover the pan and simmer for 1 hour or until the veal is tender.

Serve

  1. Remove the spices, onion, and herbs 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. Peas + lettucetop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together1,293 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-isobutyl-3-methoxypyrazine (green bell pepper, earthy).

  2. Mace + clovetop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together8,400 recipes

    Shared aroma: methyleugenol (clove, spice).

  3. Lettuce + clovetop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together486 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-nonanone (fruity, floral).

  4. Lettuce + oniontop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together3,562 recipes

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

  5. Flour + lettucetop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together1,236 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

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

What each ingredient does

Veal breast
Provides the main meat, which becomes tender through long, covered simmering.
Flour
Coats the veal so it browns well and helps thicken the cooking liquid.
Butter
Fat for frying the floured veal, adding browning and rich flavour.
Green peas
Adds sweetness and a soft texture to the stew.
Lettuce
Softens during simmering and adds gentle, mild vegetable flavour and moisture.

The step that matters

Browning the floured veal. Frying the flour-coated veal until golden develops browned flavour through the Maillard reaction. Pale meat added to the pan gives a flatter, less savoury stew.

Swap the mace

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (veal, flour, butter, peas, lettuce, onion, clove):

  1. Capersfits better
  2. Tarragonfits better
  3. Turmericfits better
  4. Macethe original

Fit is the average pairing score against veal, flour, butter, peas, lettuce, onion, clove. 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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