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Veal Fricassee

Veal fricassee is a stew of veal pieces browned in fat, simmered with onions, salt, pepper, milk, and butter.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 9 ingredients
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Why it works: Milk and butter are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 7% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 81,283 recipes. Both carry (z)-4-heptenal, which smells biscuit, cream. The science ↓

Veal Fricassee

Ingredients

Directions

The book gives no cooking times; the times in the steps were added in transcription, so check for doneness rather than trusting the clock.

Prepare the veal

  1. Remove all fine crumbly bones from the veal pieces.

  2. Dredge the veal in flour and brown it in dripping or salt pork fat.

Simmer

  1. Cover the meat with boiling water and skim as it begins to boil.

  2. Add the chopped onions, salt, and pepper.

  3. Simmer until the veal is very tender.

  4. Remove the larger bones.

Finish

  1. Add a flour thickening and more seasoning if necessary.

  2. Cook for 10 minutes.

  3. Add the milk and butter.

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. Milk + buttertop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together81,283 recipes

    Shared aroma: (z)-4-heptenal (biscuit, cream).

  2. Pork + oniontop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together18,214 recipes

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

  3. Veal + porktop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together4,930 recipes

    Shared aroma: 4-heptenal (creamy, biscuit).

  4. Onion + peppertop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together68,474 recipes

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

  5. Flour + buttertop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together124,287 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

Flour and butter barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 124,287 recipes: they work on texture and structure more than aroma.

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

What each ingredient does

Veal
Provides the main meat, which becomes tender through long, gentle simmering.
Flour
Browns the veal for flavour and, as a thickening, gives the sauce body.
Onions
Add sweetness and aroma as they soften in the simmering liquid.
Milk
Adds creaminess and mild sweetness to the finished sauce.
Butter
Adds richness and a smooth finish to the sauce.

The step that matters

Skimming after the water boils. Skimming removes foam and coagulated proteins that rise as the liquid begins to boil. Leaving them in can make the sauce cloudy and give it an off flavour.

Swap the onion

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

  1. Potatofits better
  2. Capsicumfits better
  3. Asparagusfits about as well
  4. Onionthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against veal, flour, pork, pepper, milk, 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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