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A Neck of Veal, Braised, and Oyster Sauce

A braised veal neck served with a sauce made from oysters, cream, and stock.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 20 ingredients
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Why it works: Thyme and parsley match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and 9,057 recipes mention both. Both carry cuminaldehyde, which smells Spicy, cumin. The science ↓

A Neck of Veal, Braised, and Oyster Sauce

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the veal

  1. Trim the neck of veal and blanch it in cold water until it boils, then transfer it to cold water.

  2. In a stewpan, combine veal trimmings, onions, thyme, parsley, bay leaves, mace, and 1 quart of stock.

  3. Add the neck of veal and lemon slices, cover with bacon and white paper, and simmer for 2 hours.

Make the oyster sauce

  1. Blanch the oysters, remove the gills, strain the liquor, and add the oysters to it.

  2. Melt the butter in a stewpan, add enough flour to dry it up, and stir for a few minutes.

  3. Add the oyster liquor, a little stock, and cream, and bring to a boil while stirring.

  4. Thicken the sauce, then add the oysters and heat without boiling.

  5. Squeeze in lemon juice, and season with pepper, salt, and a little sugar.

Serve

  1. Remove the veal, let it dry on a cloth, and serve with the oyster sauce poured over it, garnished with oysters.

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 aroma chemistry they share, and how many recipes mention both.

  1. Thyme + parsleytop 1% of all pairs
    Aroma overlapstrong
    Mentioned together9,057 recipes

    Shared aroma: cuminaldehyde (Spicy, cumin).

  2. Parsley + lemontop 1% of all pairs
    Aroma overlapstrong
    Mentioned together14,037 recipes

    Shared aroma: beta-phellandrene (minty, terpene).

  3. Thyme + lemontop 1% of all pairs
    Aroma overlapstrong
    Mentioned together3,973 recipes

    Shared aroma: beta-phellandrene (minty, terpene).

  4. Onion + thymetop 7% of all pairs
    Aroma overlapmoderate
    Mentioned together11,171 recipes

    Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).

  5. Onion + parsleytop 9% of all pairs
    Aroma overlapmoderate
    Mentioned together25,843 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

Neck of veal
Forms the main braised meat, becoming tender during long, gentle simmering.
Butter
Enriches the sauce and, with flour, forms the base roux that thickens it.
Flour
Combines with melted butter to form a roux that thickens the sauce.
Oysters
Provide the distinctive briny flavour of the sauce and a tender texture.
Cream
Adds richness and smoothness to the sauce, softening its flavour.
Lemon juice
Adds acidity that brightens the rich sauce and balances its flavour.

The step that matters

Heating the oysters in the sauce without boiling. Oysters toughen and shrink when overheated, and cream-based sauces can separate or curdle if they boil. Adding the oysters last and heating gently keeps them plump and the sauce smooth.

Flavor stand-ins for the mace

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (veal, onion, thyme, parsley, lemon, oyster, butter):

  1. Marjorambetter flavor fit
  2. Sagebetter flavor fit
  3. Tarragonbetter flavor fit
  4. Macethe original

Fit is the average pairing score against veal, onion, thyme, parsley, lemon, oyster, butter. Candidates are from the same food group and used in at least 100 recipes. This compares flavor only: it does not check the job the ingredient does in the dish (bulk, moisture, acidity, structure).

“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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