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Rich Pale Veal Gravy, or Consomme

A clear veal consommé made by simmering veal neck and knuckle with salt, optionally adding lean ham.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 4 ingredients
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Why it works: Veal and ham 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 Pale Veal Gravy, or Consomme

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Cut the veal neck and knuckle into pieces.

  2. Place the meat in a stewpan or saucepan.

  3. Add enough water to cover the meat.

  4. Season with coarse sea salt.

Simmer

  1. Simmer gently until the meat is tender and the flavors meld.

  2. If desired, add slices of lean ham 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. Veal + hamtop 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

What each ingredient does

Veal neck
Provides gelatin and meat flavor that give the consommé body and savour.
Veal knuckle
Releases collagen and gelatin during slow simmering, adding body and richness to the broth.
Lean ham
Adds extra savoury flavour to the broth when used.

The step that matters

Simmer gently. Boiling vigorously makes the broth cloudy and emulsifies fat into it, while gentle simmering lets collagen and flavour release slowly and keeps the liquid clear.

“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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