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Roast Fillet Op Veal

A roasted veal fillet stuffed and basted, served with melted butter, ham or bacon, and fresh cucumbers.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 6 ingredients
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Why it works: Veal and ham are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 15% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 3,264 recipes. Both carry 2,4-decadienal, which smells seaweed. The science ↓

Roast Fillet Op Veal

Ingredients

Directions

The book gives no oven temperature. The 350°F (175°C) in the steps was added when the recipe was transcribed, as a starting point.

Prepare

  1. Remove the bone from the fillet and fill the space with stuffing.

  2. Place a layer of stuffing under the fat and truss the fillet into a good shape with kitchen twine.

Roast

  1. Preheat the oven to 350°F (175°C) and roast the fillet moderately at first.

  2. Baste the fillet frequently with butter to prevent the fat from burning.

  3. Roast for 3 to 4 hours, depending on the size of the fillet.

Serve

  1. Once cooked, pour melted butter over the fillet and serve with ham or bacon and fresh cucumbers.

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

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

  2. Butter + hamtop 16% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together5,475 recipes

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

  3. Veal + cucumbertop 23% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together439 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2,6-nonadienal (cucumber, green).

  4. Veal + buttertop 23% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together9,381 recipes

    Shared aroma: 3-hexenal (apple, fruity).

  5. Butter + cucumbertop 24% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,185 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2,6-nonadienal (cucumber, green).

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 cut of meat, cooking to tender slices when roasted gently.
Butter
Basting adds moisture and helps the surface brown while protecting the fat from burning.
Stuffing
Fills the space left by the bone and keeps the fillet moist and shaped as it roasts.

The step that matters

Basting with butter. Fat that is exposed to direct heat for hours can scorch and turn bitter. Frequent basting coats the surface with butter, which keeps the fat from burning and promotes an even golden browning.

Swap the cucumber

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

  1. Onionfits better
  2. Leekfits better
  3. Potatofits better
  4. Cucumberthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against veal, butter, ham. 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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