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Rich Pale Veal Gravy; Or, Consommee

A clear veal consommé made by simmering veal with stock, herbs, and spices, then straining.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 7 ingredients
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Why it works: Beef and onion are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 7% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 17,092 recipes. Both carry 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine, which smells earthy, pea. The science ↓

Rich Pale Veal Gravy; Or, Consommee

Ingredients

Directions

Make the stock

  1. In a large pot, combine veal and beef stock.

  2. Add parsley, green onions, salt, and peppercorns.

  3. Bring to a boil, then reduce heat and simmer for 1-2 hours.

Strain and serve

  1. Strain the mixture to remove solids.

  2. Serve the gravy warm.

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. Beef + oniontop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together17,092 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).

  2. Parsley + oniontop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together25,843 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2,4-decadienal (seaweed).

  3. Veal + beeftop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together3,784 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2,6-nonadienal (cucumber, green).

  4. Parsley + macetop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together4,268 recipes

    Shared aroma: myristicin (spice, warm).

  5. Beef + parsleytop 16% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together5,866 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2,4-decadienal (seaweed).

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

What each ingredient does

Veal
Gives the broth its meaty flavour and body as its collagen softens during long simmering.
Beef stock
Supplies the liquid base and most of the beef flavour.
Parsley
Adds a fresh, herbal aroma to the broth.

The step that matters

Simmer gently instead of boiling hard. Once the pot reaches a boil, reduce the heat so the liquid only barely bubbles. Vigorous boiling churns fat and fine particles into the liquid, which makes a consommé cloudy instead of clear.

Swap the mace

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (veal, beef, parsley, onion):

  1. Garlicfits better
  2. Thymefits better
  3. Celeryfits better
  4. Macethe original

Fit is the average pairing score against veal, beef, parsley, 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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