Skip to main content
Main

Veal Steak

A veal steak grilled over coals, pan‑fried in melted butter, then baked, topped with grated cracker and parsley.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 6 ingredients
Jump to recipe ↓

Why it works: Pepper and parsley match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 2% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 34,122 recipes. Both carry 4'-methylacetophenone, which smells bitter almond. The science ↓

Veal Steak

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 and grill

  1. Beat the veal steak until tender.

  2. Place the steak on a grill over coals and cover it with a tin plate to prevent dryness.

  3. Turn the steak until it is well done.

  4. Press the steak into a pan of hot melted butter to absorb it.

Finish and serve

  1. Transfer the steak to a dish, season it with salt and pepper, and pour the remaining melted butter over it.

  2. Place the dish in a 350°F (175°C) oven for a few minutes, being careful not to fry it.

  3. Sift grated cracker over the steak and garnish with parsley before serving hot.

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. Pepper + parsleytop 2% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together34,122 recipes

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

  2. Butter + parsleytop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together28,563 recipes

    Shared aroma: trans-2-hexenal (green, leafy).

  3. Veal + parsleytop 17% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together4,766 recipes

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

  4. Veal + peppertop 19% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together10,049 recipes

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

  5. Butter + peppertop 21% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together85,593 recipes

    Shared aroma: trans-2-nonenal (cardboard, fatty).

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

What each ingredient does

Veal steak
Forms the main protein; beating it tenderizes the meat by breaking up its fibers.
Melted butter
Adds richness and moisture, keeping the steak juicy and carrying flavor into the meat.
Grated cracker
Adds a dry, crisp crumb coating that contributes texture and gentle browning.

The step that matters

Placing the dish in the oven. The record warns against frying the steak at this stage. Brief oven heat finishes the meat gently, while excess heat can toughen the protein and dry out the butter-basted surface.

Swap the parsley

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

  1. Parsleythe original
  2. Sagefits about as well
  3. Thymefits less well
  4. Tarragonfits less well

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

You might also like

Veal PattiesVeal Patties50 recipesBeef, Mutton, or Veal BrothBeef, Mutton, or Veal Broth6 recipesTomato SoupTomato Soup526 recipesBrown BreadBrown Bread461 recipes