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Quenelle of Veal

Small fried quenelles of veal, tongue, truffles, mushrooms, and pastry, served with sautéed veal.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 10 ingredients
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Why it works: Truffle and mushroom are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 4% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 1,900 recipes. Both carry 2,4-nonadienal, which smells fatty, green. The science ↓

Quenelle of Veal

Ingredients

Directions

The book gives no oven temperature. The 400°F (200°C) in the steps was added when the recipe was transcribed, as a starting point.

Prepare the filling

  1. Preheat the oven to 400°F (200°C).

  2. Sauté the fillets of veal in a small pan with butter, covered with buttered paper, until firm.

  3. Let the fillets cool, then dice them along with the tongue, truffles, and mushrooms.

  4. Mix the diced ingredients with the pate choux paste and a pinch of cayenne pepper.

Shape and fry

  1. Form the mixture into small balls about ½ inch in diameter, using bread crumbs to help shape them.

  2. Dip the balls in beaten eggs, then coat them again in bread crumbs.

  3. Fry the balls in clean lard until golden, ensuring the oil is not too hot.

Serve

  1. Serve the quenelles around the sautéed veal just before serving.

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. Truffle + mushroomtop 4% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,900 recipes

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

  2. Butter + breadtop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together27,232 recipes

    Shared aroma: delta-decalactone (sweet, creamy).

  3. Butter + mushroomtop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together12,525 recipes

    Shared aroma: trans-2-decenal (waxy, orange).

  4. Mushroom + breadtop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,536 recipes

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

  5. Butter + truffletop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,209 recipes

    Shared aroma: nonanal (fat, citrus).

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

What each ingredient does

Fillets of fowl
Forms the main body of the quenelle, giving it a firm, tender texture once cooked.
Pate choux paste
Adds lightness and binds the diced ingredients so the mixture holds its shape.
Eggs
Binds the coated balls and forms a golden crust when fried.
Fine bread crumbs
Creates a crisp, golden outer coating that browns during frying.
Butter
Adds richness and flavour when the fillets are gently sautéed.

The step that matters

Fry in lard that is not too hot. If the fat is too hot, the breadcrumb coating browns before the filling heats through, leaving the inside undercooked. Moderate heat lets the centre warm gently while the crust turns golden.

“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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