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Fricandeau of Veal

A braised veal cut stewed with onions, carrot, herbs, mace, bay leaves, broth, and ham, finished in a glaze.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 9 ingredients
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Why it works: Onion and carrot are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 6% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 21,601 recipes. Both carry 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine, which smells earthy, pea. The science ↓

Fricandeau of Veal

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the veal

  1. Cut a large piece from the fat side of the leg of veal.

  2. Flatten it with a rolling pin and trim off the skin and rough edges.

  3. Lard the top and sides with fat bacon and cover with white paper.

Stew

  1. Place it in a stew pan with chopped onions, sliced carrot, sweet herbs, mace, bay leaves, broth, and ham.

  2. Cover the pan tightly and let it stew slowly for 3 hours.

Finish the gravy and serve

  1. Remove the meat and skim the fat from the gravy.

  2. Boil the gravy quickly until it thickens to a glaze.

  3. Keep the fricandeau hot until serving.

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

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

  2. Carrot + macetop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,592 recipes

    Shared aroma: myristicin (spice, warm).

  3. Veal + carrottop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together3,015 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).

  4. Veal + hamtop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together3,264 recipes

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

  5. Onion + macetop 17% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together7,078 recipes

    Shared aroma: eugenol (clove, spicy).

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, covered stewing.
Fat bacon
Lardoning adds fat and moisture to the lean veal as it cooks.
Onions
Flavour base that sweetens and deepens the broth and gravy as they stew.
Veal or mutton broth
Liquid that gently cooks the meat and becomes the gravy.
Lean ham or gammon
Adds savoury, salty flavour to the broth and gravy.

The step that matters

Boil the gravy quickly until it thickens to a glaze. Rapid boiling reduces the thin stewing liquid by evaporation, concentrating its flavour and gelatine so it sets into a glossy glaze. Watch closely, as it can scorch or over-reduce once thickened.

Swap the mace

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

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

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