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Wixced Veal

A veal dish simmered in a thickened gravy, seasoned with herbs, spices, and lemon rind, served with toasted sippets.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 15 ingredients
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Why it works: Mace and nutmeg are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 4% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 6,557 recipes. Both carry myristicin, which smells spice, warm. The science ↓

Wixced Veal

Ingredients

Directions

Make the stock

  1. Boil the bones and trimmings of the veal with water, herbs, carrot, celery, mace, peppercorns, and ham for 2 hours.

  2. Strain the mixture and let the gravy cool to remove fat.

Prepare and cook the veal

  1. Trim the veal of gristle and brown edges, then mince it finely.

  2. Season the veal with salt, white pepper, nutmeg or mace, and lemon rind.

  3. Mix flour with butter to create a smooth paste, then thicken the gravy with it.

  4. Combine the veal with the thickened gravy and heat gently without boiling.

Serve

  1. Serve with toasted sippets and add cream 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. Mace + nutmegtop 4% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together6,557 recipes

    Shared aroma: myristicin (spice, warm).

  2. Carrot + nutmegtop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together1,424 recipes

    Shared aroma: myristicin (spice, warm).

  3. Flour + nutmegtop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together18,623 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  4. Mace + white peppertop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,695 recipes

    Shared aroma: myrcene (balsamic, herbaceous).

  5. Flour + buttertop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together124,287 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

Flour and butter barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 124,287 recipes: they work on texture and structure more than aroma.

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

What each ingredient does

White veal
Provides the main meat, which is minced so it blends into the smooth gravy.
Flour
Thickens the gravy as it cooks, giving it a smooth, body-rich texture.
Butter
Combines with the flour into a paste that thickens the gravy and adds richness.
Ham
Adds savoury depth to the stock while the bones and trimmings simmer.
Cream
Optional addition that softens flavour and adds richness to the finished dish.

The step that matters

Combine the veal with the thickened gravy and heat gently without boiling. Boiling can toughen the meat proteins and cause the thickened gravy to break or become grainy. Gentle heat keeps the veal tender and the sauce smooth.

Swap the white pepper

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (veal, carrot, mace, ham, flour, butter, nutmeg):

  1. Parsleyfits better
  2. Cinnamonfits better
  3. Marjoramfits better
  4. White pepperthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against veal, carrot, mace, ham, flour, butter, nutmeg. 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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