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Veal

A veal loin stuffed with forcemeat and bacon, simmered with herbs, anchovies, and spices.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 11 ingredients
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Why it works: White pepper and mace are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 9% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 1,695 recipes. Both carry myrcene, which smells balsamic, herbaceous. The science ↓

Veal

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the loin

  1. Raise the skin of the veal loin and fill it with forcemeat.

  2. Bind the loin with tape and cover it with slices of bacon.

Braise

  1. Place it in a stew pan with veal bones, mutton shanks, and cover with water or broth.

  2. Add sweet herbs, anchovies, white pepper, and mace.

  3. Cover the stew pan with a cloth and fit the lid tightly, placing a weight on top.

  4. Simmer slowly for 2 hours, shaking the pan occasionally.

Finish and serve

  1. Remove the veal, bacon, and herbs, then glaze the veal.

  2. Serve with tornata or mushroom sauce, or stewed mushrooms.

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. White pepper + macetop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,695 recipes

    Shared aroma: myrcene (balsamic, herbaceous).

  2. Veal + muttontop 14% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together1,394 recipes

    Shared aroma: 1-nonanal (fatty, waxy).

  3. Veal + macetop 18% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together3,761 recipes

    Shared aroma: alpha-pinene (pine, turpentine).

  4. Veal + white peppertop 22% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together1,057 recipes

    Shared aroma: eucalyptol (eucalyptus, herbal).

  5. Mutton + macetop 30% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together827 recipes

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

What each ingredient does

Veal loin
Forms the main body of the dish, holding the forcemeat as it cooks.
Forcemeat
Adds a moist, tender stuffing that cooks through inside the loin.
Slices of bacon
Covers the loin and adds fat and savoury flavour as it renders.
Veal bones and trimmings
Release gelatin and flavour into the cooking liquid, enriching the broth.
Mutton shanks
Add collagen and depth of flavour to the simmering liquid.
Anchovies
Contribute a deep, savoury umami note that rounds out the broth.

The step that matters

Simmering slowly with the lid tightly sealed. A gentle, low simmer keeps the meat tender and the stuffing moist. A hard boil toughens muscle fibres and can break the loin apart, so the liquid should barely move.

Swap the white pepper

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

  1. Nutmegfits better
  2. Clovefits better
  3. Pepperfits better
  4. White pepperthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against veal, mutton, mace. 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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