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Shoulder of Veal a LA Bourgeoise

Braised veal shoulder seasoned with salt, pepper, nutmeg, and bay leaf, finished with a butter gravy.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 7 ingredients
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Why it works: Pepper and nutmeg match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 7% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 13,015 recipes. Both carry 4'-methylacetophenone, which smells bitter almond. The science ↓

Shoulder of Veal a LA Bourgeoise

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the veal

  1. Bone the shoulder of veal and season it with salt, pepper, and nutmeg.

  2. Roll the shoulder into an oblong shape and tie it up.

Stew and glaze

  1. Place it in an oval stewpan with butter and stew over low heat until lightly colored.

  2. Add water and sprinkle with a little salt and a bay leaf.

  3. Place fire above and below until a glaze forms.

Serve

  1. Dress the shoulder on a dish and drain the butter.

  2. Pour the gravy over 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. Pepper + nutmegtop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together13,015 recipes

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

  2. Nutmeg + buttertop 16% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together24,377 recipes

    Shared aroma: eucalyptol (eucalyptus, herbal).

  3. Veal + peppertop 19% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together10,049 recipes

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

  4. Pepper + buttertop 21% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together85,593 recipes

    Shared aroma: trans-2-nonenal (cardboard, fatty).

  5. Veal + nutmegtop 21% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together2,542 recipes

    Shared aroma: eucalyptol (eucalyptus, herbal).

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

What each ingredient does

Veal shoulder
Forms the main body of the dish, becoming tender as it stews slowly.
Butter
Adds fat and richness, and helps the veal color lightly before stewing.
Water
Creates the liquid that becomes the gravy around the veal.

The step that matters

Place fire above and below until a glaze forms. Heat from both above and below can reduce the liquid and brown the surface too quickly if not watched. Gentle, even heat lets the juices concentrate into a glossy glaze without scorching.

Swap the nutmeg

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (veal, pepper, butter):

  1. Parsleyfits better
  2. Sagefits better
  3. Thymefits about as well
  4. Nutmegthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against veal, pepper, butter. 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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