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Mirepoix for Braizing Larded Fillets of Roebuck, Etc.

A mirepoix of veal, ham, carrots, onions, mushrooms, shallots, garlic, bay leaves, thyme, cloves, peppercorns, butter, Madeira or sherry, and broth for braising roebuck fillets.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 16 ingredients
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Why it works: Onion and garlic match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 29,058 recipes. Both carry furaneol, which smells caramel, strawberry. The science ↓

Mirepoix for Braizing Larded Fillets of Roebuck, Etc.

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Cut the veal, bacon, ham, carrots, onions, mushrooms, shallots, garlic, bay leaves, thyme, cloves, mace, and peppercorns into small square pieces.

Make the mirepoix

  1. In a stewpan, melt the butter and fry the chopped ingredients until browned.

  2. Add the Madeira or sherry and broth to the stewpan.

  3. Boil the mixture on the stove for about 1.5 hours.

  4. Strain the mirepoix through a fine sieve into a basin, applying pressure to extract all the flavors.

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 + garlictop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together29,058 recipes

    Shared aroma: furaneol (caramel, strawberry).

  2. Mushroom + shallottop 4% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,982 recipes

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

  3. Shallot + garlictop 4% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together2,000 recipes

    Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).

  4. Carrot + clovetop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together5,873 recipes

    Shared aroma: cuminaldehyde (Spicy, cumin).

  5. Shallot + clovetop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together1,677 recipes

    Shared aroma: eucalyptol (eucalyptus, herbal).

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

What each ingredient does

Veal
Provides the meaty base that flavours the braising liquid as it cooks down.
Fat bacon
Renders fat into the pan, carrying flavour and helping the vegetables brown.
Lean ham
Adds savoury, salty depth to the stock as it simmers.
Onions
Caramelise when browned, adding sweetness and depth to the mirepoix.
Carrots
Contribute natural sweetness and body to the finished base.
Madeira or sherry
Adds acidity and aromatic complexity as it reduces during boiling.

The step that matters

Frying the chopped ingredients until browned. Browning through the Maillard reaction and caramelisation builds the deep, savoury flavour the mirepoix depends on. Pale, underbrowned pieces yield a flat-tasting base.

Swap the clove

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (veal, ham, carrot, onion, mushroom, shallot, garlic):

  1. Thymefits better
  2. Parsleyfits better
  3. Capersfits better
  4. Clovethe original

Fit is the average pairing score against veal, ham, carrot, onion, mushroom, shallot, garlic. 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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