Why it works: Veal and ham are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 15% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 3,264 recipes. Both carry 2,4-decadienal, which smells seaweed. The science ↓
Veal Gravy
Ingredients
Directions
Brown the veal slices in a pan.
Add the diced ham and continue cooking.
Mix the salt in boiling water.
Pour some of the salted water over the meat.
Pierce the meat with a sharp skewer.
Add the remaining water when the meat is nearly done, ensuring not to add it too early.
Cook until the gravy reaches the desired flavor.
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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Veal + hamtop 15% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together3,264 recipes
Shared aroma: 2,4-decadienal (seaweed).
Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs
What each ingredient does
- Veal
- Provides the meat and drippings that form the body and savoury flavour of the gravy.
- Ham
- Adds salty, smoky depth and extra fat to the pan.
- Boiling water
- Dissolves the salt and loosens browned bits from the pan to build the gravy liquid.
The step that matters
Add the remaining water when the meat is nearly done. Adding water too early stops the meat from browning further and dilutes the flavour, while adding it near the end lets the liquid pick up the concentrated pan juices.
“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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