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Fricandeau

A veal stew with carrots, onions, parsley, bacon, and seasonings, simmered slowly and finished with a rich gravy.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 13 ingredients
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Why it works: Parsley and thyme match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 9,057 recipes. Both carry cuminaldehyde, which smells Spicy, cumin. The science ↓

Fricandeau

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the veal

  1. Separate the skin from the veal and flatten the meat on a clean cloth.

  2. Make slits in the bottom part of the veal to soak up seasoning and lard the top thickly and evenly.

Build the base

  1. In a stewpan, layer the sliced carrots, onions, parsley, mace, pepper, thyme, and bay leaf.

  2. Cover the vegetables with slices of bacon, forming a pile in the shape of a teacup.

  3. Place the veal over the bacon and sprinkle with coarse sea salt.

  4. Add enough broth and beef jelly mixed with warm water to cover the bottom of the stewpan without reaching the veal.

Braise and glaze

  1. Heat charcoal on the cover of the pan and keep a small fire beneath.

  2. Once it begins to boil, remove the stewpan and place it over a very slow fire for 3.5 hours, basting frequently.

  3. Check for doneness by inserting a skewer; it should go in and out easily.

  4. Increase the heat on top of the stewpan until the bacon becomes firm.

  5. Remove the veal and keep it warm while reducing the cooking liquid to a deep rich gravy to glaze the veal.

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 + thymetop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together9,057 recipes

    Shared aroma: cuminaldehyde (Spicy, cumin).

  2. Carrot + parsleytop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together8,053 recipes

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

  3. Parsley + peppertop 2% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together34,122 recipes

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

  4. Carrot + thymetop 3% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together4,563 recipes

    Shared aroma: cuminaldehyde (Spicy, cumin).

  5. Pepper + thymetop 4% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together11,585 recipes

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

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

What each ingredient does

Veal
Forms the main body of the dish, becoming tender through slow, moist cooking.
Bacon
Its fat bastes the veal and keeps the lean meat moist during the long cooking.
Beef jelly
Adds gelatin and body to the cooking liquid, helping it reduce into a rich glaze.
Onions
Break down into the cooking liquid, adding sweetness and depth to the gravy.
Carrots
Release sweetness and body into the braising liquid as they soften.

The step that matters

Slow braising over very gentle heat. Keeping the liquid at a barely simmering heat lets the connective tissue soften gradually without toughening the meat or drying out the surface.

Swap the mace

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

  1. Marjoramfits better
  2. Celeryfits better
  3. Winter savoryfits better
  4. Macethe original

Fit is the average pairing score against veal, carrot, onion, parsley, pepper, thyme, beef. 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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