Name: With Gravy of Veal
Ingredients: few heads of fine endive; hot water; cold water; gravy; 1 teaspoon sugar; salt; a little white sauce or consomme

Why it works: Sugar and sauce match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 13% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 5,147 recipes. Both carry ethanol, which smells alcoholic, ethereal. The science ↓

With Gravy of Veal

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

Wash and clean the endive, removing the outer leaves.
Blanch the endive in hot water, then transfer to cold water and squeeze dry.

Stew and serve

Stew the endive in enough gravy to cover it.
Add sugar and a little salt.
When tender, stir in a little white sauce or consommé and serve hot.

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.

Sugar + saucetop 13% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together5,147 recipes

Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).
Endive + saucetop 19% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together129 recipes

Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).
Endive + sugartop 28% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together116 recipes

Shared aroma: 1-penten-3-one (fish, pungent).

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

What each ingredient does

Endive: Provides the main vegetable body and a slightly bitter flavour that the gravy and sugar balance.
Gravy: Cooks the endive slowly and supplies moisture and savoury flavour to the dish.
Sugar: Softens the endive's bitterness and adds a touch of sweetness.
White sauce or consommé: Stirred in at the end to add richness or body to the finished dish.