Why it works: Bread and butter are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 7% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 27,232 recipes. Both carry delta-decalactone, which smells sweet, creamy. The science ↓
Veal Olives
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 the olives
Prepare forcemeat by mixing fine bread crumbs with minced fat salt pork, moisten with oyster liquor, and season with pepper, salt, and sweet herbs.
Spread each slice of veal with forcemeat, place a couple of small oysters or one large oyster in the center, and roll up the meat.
Secure the roll with a small skewer and place in a dripping pan.
Bake
Melt butter in boiling water and pour over the veal rolls.
Bake covered at 350°F (175°C) for 1 hour, basting frequently with the gravy.
Uncover and brown the rolls.
Finish and serve
Keep the olives warm while you thicken the gravy with browned flour and add tomato ketchup.
Pour the gravy around the olives in the serving dish.
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.
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Bread + buttertop 7% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together27,232 recipes
Shared aroma: delta-decalactone (sweet, creamy).
-
Pepper + tomatotop 7% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together17,923 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).
-
Bread + tomatotop 10% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together1,013 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).
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Pork + tomatotop 10% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together4,843 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).
-
Veal + porktop 11% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together4,930 recipes
Shared aroma: 4-heptenal (creamy, biscuit).
Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs
What each ingredient does
- Veal cutlet
- Forms the outer wrap that holds the filling and becomes tender during slow baking.
- Oysters
- Provide a briny, savory flavor inside the rolled filling.
- Fine bread crumbs
- Absorb oyster liquor and fat to form a moist, binding forcemeat.
- Minced fat salt pork
- Adds fat and savory richness that keeps the filling moist during baking.
- Butter
- Adds fat and richness to the gravy and helps the rolls brown.
- Tomato ketchup
- Adds acidity and sweetness to the gravy.
The step that matters
Bake covered, then brown the rolls. Baking covered with basting keeps the veal moist, while the final uncovered stage browns the surface. Skipping the covered stage can dry the meat before it cooks through.
Swap the tomato
How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (veal, oyster, bread, pork, pepper, butter, ketchup):
- Capsicumfits about as well
- Tomatothe original
- Potatofits about as well
- Shallotfits about as well
Fit is the average pairing score against veal, oyster, bread, pork, pepper, butter, ketchup. 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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