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Veal Stew

A stew of veal, bacon, eschalots, capers, and vinegar simmered in water.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 9 ingredients
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Why it works: Flour and capers match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 6% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 1,024 recipes. Both carry isobutyraldehyde, which smells malty, green. The science ↓

Veal Stew

Ingredients

Directions

Layer the pot

  1. Layer bacon in a pot.

  2. Add a layer of veal pieces dredged in flour.

  3. Top with sliced eschalots, salt, and pepper.

Cook and serve

  1. Pour in warm water and stir in capers and vinegar.

  2. Cook gently until done and serve hot.

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. Flour + caperstop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together1,024 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  2. Pepper + caperstop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,088 recipes

    Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).

  3. Pepper + vinegartop 14% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together27,814 recipes

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

  4. Capers + vinegartop 16% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,453 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  5. Veal + caperstop 19% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together198 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-methylbutyraldehyde (malty, chocolate).

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

What each ingredient does

Veal
The main meat, which becomes tender when cooked slowly in liquid.
Bacon
Renders fat into the pot and adds savory, smoky flavor to the stew.
Flour
Coats the veal and thickens the cooking liquid into a light sauce.
Eschalots
Soften as they cook, adding mild sweetness and aroma to the stew.

The step that matters

Cook gently until done. High heat toughens the proteins in veal and can dry the meat out, while gentle simmering breaks down connective tissue and keeps it moist and tender.

Swap the capers

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (veal, flour, pepper, vinegar):

  1. Tarragonfits better
  2. Turmericfits better
  3. Parsleyfits better
  4. Capersthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against veal, flour, pepper, vinegar. 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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