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Veal Gravy

A savory veal gravy made by simmering veal bones, neck, bacon, herbs, and onions, then thickening with mace and butter.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 15 ingredients
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Why it works: Parsley and thyme match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 9,057 recipes. Both carry cuminaldehyde, which smells Spicy, cumin. The science ↓

Veal Gravy

Ingredients

Directions

Make the stock

  1. Place the bones and scrag of neck in a stewpot.

  2. Add bacon, parsley, thyme, lemon peel, and pepper.

  3. Cover with water and bring to a boil, skimming as needed.

  4. Cover tightly and simmer for 3 hours.

  5. Strain the mixture and let it cool, then skim off the fat.

Flavour and thicken

  1. Pound the mace finely and boil it with 2 teaspoons of water, then add the boiled mace to the gravy.

  2. Fry the onions in butter until brown.

  3. Toast the bread until hard and very brown, but not burnt.

  4. Combine the onions, any leftover meat or bones, herbs, and water in a pot.

  5. Stew until the gravy thickens.

  6. Add salt and pepper to taste.

  7. Strain and let cool.

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. Parsley + thymetop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together9,057 recipes

    Shared aroma: cuminaldehyde (Spicy, cumin).

  2. Parsley + lemontop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together14,037 recipes

    Shared aroma: beta-phellandrene (minty, terpene).

  3. Thyme + lemontop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together3,973 recipes

    Shared aroma: beta-phellandrene (minty, terpene).

  4. Parsley + peppertop 2% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together34,122 recipes

    Shared aroma: 4'-methylacetophenone (bitter almond).

  5. Lemon + peppertop 3% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together27,047 recipes

    Shared aroma: trans-2-nonenal (cardboard, fatty).

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

What each ingredient does

Bones from the knuckle
Release gelatin and body into the stock during long simmering, giving the gravy richness.
Onions
Browning in butter adds deep, sweet, savoury colour and flavour to the gravy.
Bread
Toasting to deep brown adds colour and a roasted, toasty aroma to the gravy.
Butter
Fat that carries flavour and helps the onions brown in the pan.
Knuckle of veal, meat removed
Lean meat that adds savoury flavour to the stock as it simmers.

The step that matters

Skimming the stock before and after simmering. Skimming removes foam and excess fat that would otherwise make the gravy greasy and cloudy. Removing fat after cooling lets it solidify on the surface so it can be lifted off cleanly.

Swap the mace

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (veal, meat, parsley, thyme, lemon, pepper, onion):

  1. Marjoramfits better
  2. Sagefits better
  3. Winter savoryfits better
  4. Macethe original

Fit is the average pairing score against veal, meat, parsley, thyme, lemon, pepper, onion. 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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