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To Fricassee Berf Palates

A fricassee of beef palates in a sauce of cream, wine, cucumber, and boiled onions.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 15 ingredients
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Why it works: Garlic and parsley match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 4% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 9,308 recipes. Both carry beta-phellandrene, which smells minty, terpene. The science ↓

To Fricassee Berf Palates

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the palates

  1. Soak and clean the beef palates.

  2. Boil the palates in enough cold water to barely cover, adding salt, sugar, white pepper, garlic, parsley, and white wine.

  3. Simmer for 3 hours.

  4. Remove the palates, skin them, and cut into small round slices.

  5. Strain the cooking liquid and set aside.

Make the sauce

  1. In a stewpan, melt butter and stir in flour.

  2. Gradually add cream and the reserved cooking liquid.

  3. Peel cucumbers, cut them lengthwise into quarters, and remove seeds.

  4. Add the cucumbers to the sauce with boiled onions, salt, Cayenne, and grated nutmeg.

  5. Boil for 15 minutes.

Finish and serve

  1. Add the sliced palates to the sauce and simmer for another 15 minutes.

  2. Remove from heat.

  3. Stir in lemon juice.

  4. Pour the sauce over the fricassee.

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. Garlic + parsleytop 4% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together9,308 recipes

    Shared aroma: beta-phellandrene (minty, terpene).

  2. Clove + parsleytop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together6,768 recipes

    Shared aroma: cuminaldehyde (Spicy, cumin).

  3. White wine + buttertop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together5,083 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl octanoate (fruity, wine).

  4. Clove + garlictop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together11,368 recipes

    Shared aroma: linalool (floral, citrus).

  5. Garlic + white winetop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together3,044 recipes

    Shared aroma: linalool (floral, citrus).

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

What each ingredient does

Beef palates
Provide the main meat, which becomes tender through long simmering.
Butter
Melts with flour to form the roux that thickens the sauce and adds richness.
Flour
Thickens the butter and cooking liquid into a smooth, body-giving sauce.
Cream
Adds richness and a smooth, silky texture to the sauce.
White wine
Adds acidity and aroma to the cooking liquid, flavouring the palates.
Cucumbers
Contribute a cool, fresh flavour and crisp-tender texture to the sauce.

The step that matters

Adding the cream and cooking liquid to the roux. Adding liquid gradually while stirring keeps the flour smooth and prevents lumps, so the sauce thickens evenly.

Swap the white pepper

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (beef, sugar, clove, garlic, parsley, white wine, butter):

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

Fit is the average pairing score against beef, sugar, clove, garlic, parsley, white wine, butter. 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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