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Blanquette of Veal

A veal stew simmered in a white sauce with lemon, parsley, and optional mushrooms and onions.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 15 ingredients
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Why it works: Pepper and clove match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 5% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 17,451 recipes. Both carry ethyl octanoate, which smells fruity, wine. The science ↓

Blanquette of Veal

Ingredients

Directions

Poach the veal

  1. Place the veal in a saucepan and cover it with cold water.

  2. Bring to a boil over high heat, skimming off any scum that rises.

  3. Add salt, pepper, bouquet garni, onion, and carrot.

  4. Reduce heat and simmer gently for 1.5 hours; then refrigerate overnight.

  5. Remove the veal from the broth and place it in a clean bowl, discarding any fat.

Make the sauce and finish

  1. In a separate pan, make a white sauce by combining flour and butter, then moisten with the reserved broth.

  2. Add the sauce to the veal and simmer for 15 minutes.

  3. Transfer the veal to a serving dish.

  4. In a bowl, mix the egg yolks with a little milk or cream, then stir into the sauce along with lemon juice and parsley just before serving.

  5. Optionally, add prepared mushrooms and small onions.

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 + clovetop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together17,451 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl octanoate (fruity, wine).

  2. Clove + carrottop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together5,873 recipes

    Shared aroma: cuminaldehyde (Spicy, cumin).

  3. Pepper + carrottop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together14,555 recipes

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

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

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

  5. Pepper + oniontop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together68,474 recipes

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

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

What each ingredient does

Veal breast
Provides the tender meat that becomes succulent after slow, gentle simmering.
Flour
Thickens the broth into a smooth white sauce with butter.
Butter
Enriches the white sauce with fat for a rich, smooth mouthfeel.
Egg yolks
Enrich and thicken the sauce when stirred in gently, adding richness and body.
Lemon juice
Adds acidity that brightens the rich, creamy sauce.

The step that matters

Stirring in the egg yolks. Egg yolks thicken through gentle heat. If the sauce boils after they are added, the yolks can scramble and turn grainy, so add them off the heat or at low heat just before serving.

Swap the onion

The recipe marks onion as optional. How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (veal, pepper, clove, carrot, flour, butter, egg):

  1. Leekfits better
  2. Capsicumfits better
  3. Parsnipfits better
  4. Onionthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against veal, pepper, clove, carrot, flour, butter, egg. 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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