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 Eor Braizing Larded Fillets of Roebuck, Etc
Ingredients
Directions
Prepare
Cut the veal, bacon, ham, carrots, onions, mushrooms, shallots, garlic, and spices into small square pieces.
Braise
In a stewpan, melt the butter and sauté the ingredients until browned.
Add the Madeira or sherry and broth, then boil for about 1.5 hours.
Strain the mixture through a fine sieve into a basin, pressing to extract all the flavors.
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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Onion + garlictop 1% of all pairsSmell alikestrongCooked together29,058 recipes
Shared aroma: furaneol (caramel, strawberry).
-
Mushroom + shallottop 4% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together1,982 recipes
Shared aroma: 2,4-decadienal (seaweed).
-
Shallot + garlictop 4% of all pairsSmell alikestrongCooked together2,000 recipes
Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).
-
Carrot + clovetop 5% of all pairsSmell alikestrongCooked together5,873 recipes
Shared aroma: cuminaldehyde (Spicy, cumin).
-
Shallot + clovetop 5% of all pairsSmell alikestrongCooked 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 meat base and tender body of the braise.
- Butter
- Browns the vegetables and meat, building color and a rich flavor.
- Fat bacon
- Adds fat and smoky savoriness that carries flavor through the braise.
- Madeira or sherry
- Adds aromatic depth and acidity that balances the rich, savory base.
- Broth
- Supplies liquid that slowly extracts flavor and gelatin during the long simmer.
- Mushrooms
- Contribute earthy umami and moisture to the mirepoix.
The step that matters
Sautéing until browned. Browning the veal, bacon and vegetables in butter creates Maillard flavors that the broth cannot add later. Pale sautéing leaves the finished sauce flat.
Swap the clove
How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (veal, ham, carrot, onion, mushroom, shallot, garlic):
- Thymefits better
- Parsleyfits better
- Capersfits better
- 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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