Name: Rich Deep-coloured Veal Gravy
Ingredients: ½ to ¾ pound undressed ham, sliced ½ inch thick; 4 pounds lean veal, cut from the best part of the knuckle or neck

Why it works: Ham and veal are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 15% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 3,264 recipes. Both carry 2,4-decadienal, which smells seaweed. The science ↓

Rich Deep-coloured Veal Gravy

Ingredients

½ to ¾ pound undressed ham, sliced ½ inch thick
4 pounds lean veal, cut from the best part of the knuckle or neck

Directions

Place the sliced ham in a large thick stewpan or saucepan.
Layer the veal on top of the ham.

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.

Ham + vealtop 15% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together3,264 recipes

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

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

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Rich Deep-coloured Veal Gravy