Why it works: Pepper and lemon match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 3% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 27,047 recipes. Both carry trans-2-nonenal, which smells cardboard, fatty. The science ↓
Veal Birds
Ingredients
Directions
Cut veal into very thin slices, about 2 inches wide and 4 inches long.
Pound the veal thoroughly and trim it.
Chop the trimmings finely and mix with half as much cracker crumbs.
Season the mixture with salt, pepper, celery salt, cayenne, lemon juice, and onion juice.
Moisten with stock and enough egg to hold the mixture together.
Add melted butter or chopped fat salt pork to the mixture.
Spread the mixture on the veal, roll it up, and secure with skewers.
Season the rolled veal with salt and pepper, then roll in flour.
Fry in butter until golden brown.
Transfer to a stew pan, add cream thinned with milk to nearly cover, and cook for 30 minutes.
Remove the skewers and serve on toast or zephyrettes.
Strain the remaining cream and pour around the veal or serve with a thin white sauce.
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.
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Pepper + lemontop 3% of all pairsSmell alikestrongCooked together27,047 recipes
Shared aroma: trans-2-nonenal (cardboard, fatty).
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Celery + lemontop 3% of all pairsSmell alikestrongCooked together3,467 recipes
Shared aroma: beta-phellandrene (minty, terpene).
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Pepper + celerytop 5% of all pairsSmell alikestrongCooked together16,012 recipes
Shared aroma: 4'-methylacetophenone (bitter almond).
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Celery + oniontop 7% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together18,518 recipes
Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).
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Pepper + oniontop 11% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked 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
Swap the onion
How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (veal, pepper, celery, lemon, egg, butter, flour):
- Leekfits better
- Spinachfits better
- Carrotfits better
- Onionthe original
Fit is the average pairing score against veal, pepper, celery, lemon, egg, butter, flour. Candidates are from the same food group and used in at least 100 recipes.
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