Why it works: Parsley and pepper match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 2% of all ingredient pairs, and 34,122 recipes mention both. Both carry 4'-methylacetophenone, which smells bitter almond. The science ↓
Baked Fillet of Veal
Ingredients
Directions
Prepare the fillet
Take the bone out of the fillet.
Wrap the flap around and sew it.
Make a forcemeat of breadcrumbs, bacon fat, a little chopped onion, parsley, pepper, salt, and pounded nutmeg. Wet the forcemeat with the yolks of eggs.
Fill the cavity left by the bone with the forcemeat.
Make holes around the fillet with a knife and fill them with forcemeat as well.
Lard the top of the fillet.
Bake and make the gravy
Put the fillet in a Dutch oven with a pint of water.
Bake it sufficiently.
Thicken the gravy with butter and brown flour.
Add a gill of wine and one of mushroom catsup.
Serve
Serve garnished with fried forcemeat balls.
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. See the original page.
Explore the science
The flavor team
The pairs that carry this dish. Each one is judged two ways: how much aroma chemistry they share, and how many recipes mention both.
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Parsley + peppertop 2% of all pairsAroma overlapstrongMentioned together34,122 recipes
Shared aroma: 4'-methylacetophenone (bitter almond).
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Parsley + nutmegtop 3% of all pairsAroma overlapstrongMentioned together5,062 recipes
Shared aroma: 4'-methylacetophenone (bitter almond).
-
Pepper + nutmegtop 7% of all pairsAroma overlapstrongMentioned together13,015 recipes
Shared aroma: 4'-methylacetophenone (bitter almond).
-
Wine + peppertop 18% of all pairsAroma overlapmoderateMentioned together8,066 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).
-
Wine + parsleytop 20% of all pairsAroma overlaplowMentioned together3,400 recipes
Shared aroma: myrcene (balsamic, herbaceous).
Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs
What each ingredient does
- Veal fillet (in the method)
- Forms the main body of the dish, providing the meat that is baked and served.
- Eggs (in the method)
- Yolks bind the forcemeat so it holds together rather than crumbling in the cavity.
- Breadcrumbs (in the method)
- Form the bulk of the forcemeat, absorbing fat and moisture to give a soft, sliceable stuffing.
- Brown flour (in the method)
- Thickens the gravy and adds a toasted, deeper flavour as it cooks.
- Wine
- Adds acidity and aroma to the gravy, balancing its richness.
The step that matters
Bake it sufficiently. Veal is lean and can dry out or stay underdone at the core if baked too briefly or too hot. Cooking it through gently in liquid keeps it moist while ensuring the stuffing sets.
Flavor stand-ins for the nutmeg
How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (wine, parsley, pepper):
- Thymebetter flavor fit
- Rosemarybetter flavor fit
- Tarragonbetter flavor fit
- Nutmegthe original
Fit is the average pairing score against wine, parsley, pepper. Candidates are from the same food group and used in at least 100 recipes. This compares flavor only: it does not check the job the ingredient does in the dish (bulk, moisture, acidity, structure).
“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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