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Rich Deep-coloured Veal Gravy

A rich, deep-coloured gravy made from veal, ham, broth, and optional aromatics.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 10 ingredients
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Why it works: Parsley and celery match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 6,810 recipes. Both carry 4'-methylacetophenone, which smells bitter almond. The science ↓

Rich Deep-coloured Veal Gravy

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the glaze

  1. In a large thick stewpan, lay the ham, sliced ½ inch thick.

  2. Add the veal on top of the ham.

  3. Pour in ½ pint of broth and place the pan over a brisk fire until well reduced.

  4. Insert a knife into the meat and continue stewing gently until a glaze forms.

  5. Shake the stewpan frequently and watch the gravy closely to prevent burning.

Finish the gravy

  1. When the gravy is a fine deep amber color, pour in enough boiling broth to cover the meat.

  2. Add the parsley, mushrooms, and green onions.

  3. Optionally, add mace, white peppercorns, and celery for extra flavor.

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. Parsley + celerytop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together6,810 recipes

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

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

    Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).

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

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

  4. Mushroom + oniontop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together10,626 recipes

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

  5. Mushroom + celerytop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,006 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
Provides the main body of the gravy and becomes tender during long, gentle stewing.
Ham
Adds savory, salty flavor and fat that helps build the browned glaze on the pan.
Broth
Carries the meat as it reduces, and dissolves the browned residue into the gravy.
Mushrooms
Add earthy savoriness that deepens the flavor of the finished gravy.

The step that matters

Watch the gravy as it turns amber. Once the glaze has browned, it can scorch quickly on the pan bottom, leaving bitter flavor. Frequent shaking and close attention keep it deep amber rather than burnt.

Swap the mace

The recipe marks mace as optional. How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (ham, veal, meat, parsley, mushroom, onion, celery):

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

Fit is the average pairing score against ham, veal, meat, parsley, mushroom, onion, celery. 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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