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Rich Pale Veal Gravy, or Consomme

A clear veal consommé made with ham, veal, broth, vegetables, and spices, simmered for hours and strained.

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

Prepare

  1. Arrange the ham and veal pieces in a stewpan.

  2. Pour in the broth or water until covered.

Make the consommé

  1. Add salt after boiling starts, then skim the surface.

  2. Add the onion, herbs, celery, carrot, mace, and peppercorns.

  3. Stew gently for 4 hours until the meat is in fragments.

Strain and finish

  1. Strain the gravy and let it cool to remove the fat.

  2. 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
Provides meat and collagen that break down during long stewing to enrich the liquid.
Strong beef or veal broth
Forms the savory liquid base that the meat and aromatics flavor and extract into.
Lean ham
Adds a cured, savory depth to the stock as it simmers.
Onion
Contributes sweetness and aromatic flavor to the simmering liquid.

The step that matters

Skim the surface after boiling starts. Proteins and impurities rise to the surface as the liquid heats. Skimming them off keeps the consommé clear rather than cloudy.

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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