Skip to main content
Main

Rich Pale Veal Gravy, Or, Consommee

A clear veal consommé made by simmering veal, ham, and aromatics for hours.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 11 ingredients
Jump to recipe ↓

Why it works: Celery and carrot match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 10,173 recipes. Both carry myristicin, which smells spice, warm. The science ↓

Rich Pale Veal Gravy, Or, Consommee

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Arrange the ham and veal in a stewpan.

  2. Pour in the broth or water.

  3. Add salt, onion, herbs, celery, carrot, mace, and peppercorns.

Simmer

  1. Bring to a boil, then reduce heat and simmer gently for 4 hours.

  2. Once the meat is tender, strain the gravy.

  3. Let it cool to remove the fat.

  4. Add mushroom buttons for extra flavor, 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. Celery + carrottop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together10,173 recipes

    Shared aroma: myristicin (spice, warm).

  2. Beef + mushroomtop 4% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together3,232 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2,4-nonadienal (fatty, green).

  3. Onion + carrottop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together21,601 recipes

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

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

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

  5. Onion + celerytop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together18,518 recipes

    Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).

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

What each ingredient does

Veal neck
Breaks down during long simmering to give the broth body and rich flavor.
Lean ham
Adds savory, cured flavor to the broth.
Beef or veal broth
Forms the liquid base that carries the flavor of the meat and aromatics.
Mushroom buttons
Add extra savory, earthy flavor to the finished consommé.

The step that matters

Simmer gently rather than boil. A rolling boil makes the liquid cloudy and emulsifies fat into it. A gentle simmer keeps the broth clear and lets the fat rise for removal.

Swap the mace

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (ham, veal, beef, onion, celery, carrot, mushroom):

  1. Parsleyfits better
  2. Thymefits better
  3. Marjoramfits better
  4. Macethe original

Fit is the average pairing score against ham, veal, beef, onion, celery, carrot, mushroom. 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.

You might also like

Beef, Mutton, or Veal BrothBeef, Mutton, or Veal Broth6 recipesRoast BeefRoast Beef211 recipesBeef LoafBeef Loaf175 recipesCarrot SoupCarrot Soup134 recipes