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Rich Pale Veal Gravy, Or, Consommee

A clear veal broth made with ham, veal, herbs, and optional mushrooms and bones.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 10 ingredients
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Why it works: Beef and mushroom are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 4% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 3,232 recipes. Both carry 2,4-nonadienal, which smells fatty, green. The science ↓

Rich Pale Veal Gravy, Or, Consommee

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. In a saucepan, arrange the ham and veal.

  2. Pour in the broth or water.

Stew

  1. Add salt after boiling starts, then skim the gravy.

  2. Include the onion, herbs, celery, carrot, mace, and peppercorns.

  3. Stew gently for 4 hours until the meat is in fragments.

Strain and finish

  1. Strain the gravy and let it cool to remove fat.

  2. Add mushroom buttons and bones for extra flavor if desired.

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. Beef + mushroomtop 4% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together3,232 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2,4-nonadienal (fatty, green).

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

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

  3. Beef + oniontop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together17,092 recipes

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

  4. Carrot + mushroomtop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,796 recipes

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

  5. Onion + mushroomtop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together10,626 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
Its connective tissue breaks down into gelatin during slow stewing, giving the broth body and mouthfeel.
Lean ham
Adds savory, salty depth that rounds out the flavor of the veal broth.
Strong beef or veal broth
Forms the liquid base that carries the flavor of the meat, bones and aromatics.
Onion
Releases sweet, aromatic flavor into the liquid as it simmers slowly.

The step that matters

Keep the stew at a gentle simmer. Vigorous boiling churns fat and proteins into the liquid, which clouds the gravy. A slow, gentle stew with regular skimming keeps the consommé clear and clean-tasting.

Swap the mace

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (ham, veal, beef, onion, carrot, mushroom):

  1. Celeryfits better
  2. Thymefits better
  3. Parsleyfits better
  4. Macethe original

Fit is the average pairing score against ham, veal, beef, onion, carrot, mushroom. 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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