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Rich Pale Veal Gravy, or Consomme

A clear veal consommé made with ham, veal, broth, onion, herbs, celery, carrot, mace, peppercorns, and optional mushrooms.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 11 ingredients
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Why it works: Celery and carrot match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 10,173 recipes. Both carry myristicin, which smells spice, warm. The science ↓

Rich Pale Veal Gravy, or Consomme

Ingredients

Directions

Make the consommé

  1. In a stewpan, combine the ham and veal.

  2. Pour in the broth or water and bring to a boil.

  3. Add salt, onion, herbs, celery, carrot, mace, and peppercorns.

  4. Reduce heat and simmer gently for 4 hours.

Strain and finish

  1. Once the meat is in fragments, strain the gravy.

  2. Let the gravy cool to remove the fat.

  3. Stir in mushroom buttons for added flavor, if desired.

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. Celery + carrottop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together10,173 recipes

    Shared aroma: myristicin (spice, warm).

  2. Beef + mushroomtop 4% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together3,232 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2,4-nonadienal (fatty, green).

  3. Onion + carrottop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together21,601 recipes

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

  4. Beef + oniontop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together17,092 recipes

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

  5. Onion + celerytop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together18,518 recipes

    Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).

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

What each ingredient does

Neck of veal
Releases collagen and gelatin during long simmering, giving the broth body and a silky mouthfeel.
Lean ham
Adds savory, smoky depth to the broth as it simmers with the meat.
Beef or veal broth
Forms the liquid base that carries the flavor of the meat and aromatics.
Onion
Contributes savory sweetness and aroma as it cooks slowly in the broth.

The step that matters

Simmer gently, do not boil. A rolling boil emulsifies fat and breaks up particles, leaving the broth cloudy. A gentle simmer lets fat rise and proteins set so the liquid stays clear.

Swap the mace

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

  1. Parsleyfits better
  2. Thymefits better
  3. Marjoramfits better
  4. Macethe original

Fit is the average pairing score against ham, veal, beef, onion, celery, carrot, mushroom. 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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