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Veal Gravy

A thick gravy made by simmering veal, gammon, onions, and broth, thickened with flour.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 6 ingredients
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Why it works: Onion and beef are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 7% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 17,092 recipes. Both carry 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine, which smells earthy, pea. The science ↓

Veal Gravy

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Place the veal in a stew pan, covering the bottom to a thickness of 1 inch.

  2. Add slices of gammon and onions on top.

  3. Cover the pan and set it over low heat until juices exude, then increase the heat.

  4. Brown the meat finely, then fill the pan with beef broth.

Simmer and strain

  1. Boil and skim the broth, then let it simmer for 1 hour.

  2. Mix water with flour to thicken the gravy, then add it to the pan.

  3. Boil for an additional 30 minutes, then strain for use.

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 + beeftop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together17,092 recipes

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

  2. Veal + beeftop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together3,784 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2,6-nonadienal (cucumber, green).

  3. Veal + oniontop 17% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together6,841 recipes

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

  4. Onion + flourtop 17% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together32,460 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  5. Beef + flourtop 25% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together10,677 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

Beef and flour barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 10,677 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

Lean veal
Provides the main meaty flavour and body of the gravy as it cooks down into the broth.
Beef broth
Forms the liquid base of the gravy and carries the flavour of the meat and onions.
Flour
Thickens the liquid into a gravy with a smooth, coating body.
Onions
Add savoury sweetness and aroma as they soften and release their juices into the pan.

The step that matters

Thickening with flour. Flour mixed with water should be stirred in smoothly and kept simmering long enough to cook out its raw taste and reach full thickness. Adding it dry or unmixed causes lumps and a floury flavour.

Swap the onion

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (veal, beef, flour):

  1. Leekfits better
  2. Shallotfits about as well
  3. Chivefits about as well
  4. Onionthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against veal, beef, 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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