Why it works: Cucumber and lettuce match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 1,409 recipes. Both carry 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine, which smells earthy, pea. The science ↓
Veal Stew
Ingredients
Directions
Make the stew
In a large pot, add veal and water, then bring to a simmer.
Add 1 teaspoon of coarse sea salt and simmer for 30 minutes.
Stir in 8 to 12 oz of well-washed rice and continue to stew gently for 1.5 hours until both the meat and rice are tender.
Season and serve
Season with cayenne and mace 20 to 30 minutes before serving, adjusting salt as needed.
For a richer flavor, substitute water with good veal broth.
Optionally, add green peas after skimming the scum.
You can also add sliced cucumbers or shredded young lettuces when it boils, or include green onions for extra 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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Cucumber + lettucetop 1% of all pairsSmell alikestrongCooked together1,409 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).
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Rice + cucumbertop 5% of all pairsSmell alikestrongCooked together734 recipes
Shared aroma: trans-2-nonenal (cardboard, fatty).
-
Peas + lettucetop 5% of all pairsSmell alikestrongCooked together1,293 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-isobutyl-3-methoxypyrazine (green bell pepper, earthy).
-
Peas + cucumbertop 5% of all pairsSmell alikestrongCooked together629 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).
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Lettuce + oniontop 8% of all pairsSmell alikestrongCooked together3,562 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).
Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs
What each ingredient does
- Veal
- Provides the meat that becomes tender during long, gentle stewing.
- Rice
- Thickens the stew as its starch releases during gentle simmering.
The step that matters
Stew gently until the meat and rice are tender. A rolling boil toughens meat proteins and can break rice grains apart, so keeping the stew at a gentle simmer gives tender meat and intact grains.
Swap the peas
The recipe marks peas as optional. How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (veal, rice, pepper, mace, cucumber, lettuce, onion):
- Beansfits better
- Chestnutfits better
- Sesamefits better
- Peasthe original
Fit is the average pairing score against veal, rice, pepper, mace, cucumber, lettuce, 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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