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Veal Gravy

A slow‑cooked veal gravy made with ham, herbs, onions, mace, and optional mushrooms.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 9 ingredients
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Why it works: Onion and mushroom are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 10% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 10,626 recipes. Both carry 2,4-decadienal, which smells seaweed. The science ↓

Veal Gravy

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Cut the veal and ham into small pieces.

  2. Put them in a stewpan and moisten with a little water.

  3. Set over fire to extract juices until the bottom is covered with a white glaze.

Make the gravy

  1. Add 3 pints of water, savory herbs, green onions or onion, mace, and salt.

  2. Stew very slowly for 3 to 4 hours, skimming well when it boils.

  3. Let cool, remove fat, and reheat when needed.

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. Onion + mushroomtop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together10,626 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2,4-decadienal (seaweed).

  2. Veal + mushroomtop 14% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,446 recipes

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

  3. Ham + mushroomtop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,486 recipes

    Shared aroma: 1-octen-3-ol (mushroom, earthy).

  4. Veal + hamtop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together3,264 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2,4-decadienal (seaweed).

  5. Onion + macetop 17% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together7,078 recipes

    Shared aroma: eugenol (clove, spicy).

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

What each ingredient does

Veal
Provides the main body and gelatin that give the gravy its rich texture.
Ham
Adds savory, salty depth to the stock as it cooks.
Green onions or onion
Contributes aromatic sweetness and savory flavor to the liquid.

The step that matters

Skimming while the gravy stews. Skimming foam and impurities as the liquid boils keeps the gravy clear and clean-tasting. Stewing very slowly prevents the liquid from churning and emulsifying fat into it.

Swap the mace

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

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

Fit is the average pairing score against veal, ham, onion, 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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