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A Fricandeau of Veal

A braised veal dish with pork, carrot, onion, celery, parsley, and tomato sauce.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 11 ingredients
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Why it works: Carrot and parsley match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 8,053 recipes. Both carry 2,4-decadienal, which smells seaweed. The science ↓

A Fricandeau of Veal

Oven, in the book's wordsA hot oven

Ingredients

Directions

The book says “a hot oven”. The 400°F (200°C) in the steps is the modern equivalent, not the book's own figure.

Prepare

  1. Cut a thick slice of veal from the fillet and trim it into shape.

  2. Lard the top of the veal.

  3. In a braising kettle or saucepan, place pieces of pork, carrot, onion, celery, and parsley.

  4. Add the veal, sprinkle with pepper and salt, and cover with well-buttered paper.

  5. Pour in enough boiling stock or water to just cover the meat and cover tightly.

Braise

  1. If using a braising pan, place it on the fire with live coals on top.

  2. If using a saucepan, cover and place in a hot oven at 400°F (200°C).

  3. Cook for about 2 to 2.5 hours.

Glaze and serve

  1. Reduce the cooking stock until thick.

  2. Brush the thickened stock over the meat.

  3. Return the meat to the oven briefly to dry.

  4. Serve with tomato sauce and garnish with green peas, spinach, or sorrel.

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. Carrot + parsleytop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together8,053 recipes

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

  2. Carrot + celerytop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together10,173 recipes

    Shared aroma: myristicin (spice, warm).

  3. Celery + parsleytop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together6,810 recipes

    Shared aroma: 4'-methylacetophenone (bitter almond).

  4. Parsley + peppertop 2% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together34,122 recipes

    Shared aroma: 4'-methylacetophenone (bitter almond).

  5. Clove + peppertop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together17,451 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl octanoate (fruity, wine).

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

What each ingredient does

Veal fillet
Forms the main body of the dish, cooking slowly to become tender in moist heat.
Pork
Adds fat and savory flavor to the braising liquid as it cooks.
Butter
Enriches the surface and helps the buttered paper keep the meat moist and lightly browned.
Stock
Provides moisture for braising and, once reduced, a thick glaze with concentrated flavor.

The step that matters

Reduce the cooking stock until thick. Reducing concentrates the gelatin and flavor of the stock so it clings to the meat as a glaze instead of running off as thin liquid.

Swap the onion

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (veal, pork, carrot, clove, celery, parsley, pepper):

  1. Turnipfits better
  2. Capsicumfits better
  3. Parsnipfits better
  4. Onionthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against veal, pork, carrot, clove, celery, parsley, pepper. 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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