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Veal

A veal fricandeau cooked with bacon, vegetables, herbs, and stock, then finished in the oven and glazed.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 7 ingredients
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Why it works: Carrot and onion are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 6% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 21,601 recipes. Both carry 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine, which smells earthy, pea. The science ↓

Veal

Oven, in the book's wordsA brisk oven

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the veal

  1. Remove the skin from the veal and flatten it on a table.

  2. Cut off the required amount in one stroke, ensuring a smooth surface.

  3. Trim the veal and make 2–3 slits in the middle for seasoning.

  4. Lard the veal thickly with fat bacon to avoid a red color.

Braise

  1. Slice the vegetables and place them with herbs and spices in a stewpan.

  2. Add a few slices of bacon on top to create a mound for the veal.

  3. Lay the veal over the bacon, sprinkle with salt, and pour in enough stock to cover the bacon without touching the veal.

  4. Bring to a boil, then simmer gently over low heat for about 2½ hours, basting frequently.

  5. Before serving, place the veal in a hot oven to firm the bacon.

Glaze and serve

  1. Dish the fricandeau, keep it hot, skim off the fat from the liquid, and reduce it to a glaze.

  2. Glaze the fricandeau and serve with a seasonal vegetable puree.

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 + oniontop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together21,601 recipes

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

  2. Veal + carrottop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together3,015 recipes

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

  3. Veal + oniontop 17% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together6,841 recipes

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

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

What each ingredient does

Veal
Forms the tender, mild main body of the dish, which the slow braise keeps moist.
Lardoons (fat bacon)
Adds fat that melts into the veal, keeping it moist and adding savory flavor.
Carrots
Release sweetness and aromatic flavor into the stock as they cook.
Onions
Build savory depth and aroma into the braising liquid as they soften.

The step that matters

Simmering gently with frequent basting. A rolling boil toughens the meat's proteins and can dry the surface. Gentle simmering keeps the veal tender, and basting keeps the surface moist while the liquid reduces to a glaze.

Swap the onion

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

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

Fit is the average pairing score against veal, carrot. 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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