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Veal Heart

A braised veal heart stuffed with bread crumbs, seasoned with salt, pepper, and aromatics, then fried and slow‑cooked.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 14 ingredients
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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 Heart

Oven, in the book's wordsA moderately hot oven

Ingredients

Directions

The book says “a moderately hot oven”. The 350°F (175°C) in the steps is the modern equivalent, not the book's own figure.

Prepare the heart

  1. Remove tough membranes from the veal heart.

  2. Soak the heart in cold water with salt for 1 hour.

  3. Wipe the heart.

  4. Stuff the heart with stale bread crumbs seasoned with salt and pepper, then moisten the stuffing with melted butter.

  5. Rub the heart with salt and pepper.

  6. Dredge the heart with flour.

Brown and braise

  1. Fry the heart until brown in a pan with a little fat salt pork.

  2. Place the heart in a braising kettle.

  3. Add water, minced onion, parsley, cloves, peppercorns, and chopped carrot to the kettle.

  4. Cover the kettle tightly.

  5. Cook for 2 hours in a moderate oven at 350°F (175°C), turning the heart 3 or 4 times while cooking.

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. Pepper + clovetop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together17,451 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl octanoate (fruity, wine).

  3. Parsley + clovetop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together6,768 recipes

    Shared aroma: cuminaldehyde (Spicy, cumin).

  4. Bread + buttertop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together27,232 recipes

    Shared aroma: delta-decalactone (sweet, creamy).

  5. Onion + parsleytop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together25,843 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 heart
Forms the main body of the dish, becoming tender through slow moist cooking.
Stale bread crumbs
Absorb butter and juices in the stuffing, giving it a soft, moist body.
Melted butter
Moistens the stuffing and adds richness and flavor.
Flour
Coats the surface so it browns during frying and helps form a flavorful crust.
Fat salt pork
Adds fat for frying, helping the heart brown and adding savory flavor.

The step that matters

Cover the kettle tightly and braise gently. Tough muscle like heart needs long, moist, low heat to break down connective tissue. If the lid is loose or the heat is too high, liquid evaporates and the meat stays tough and dry.

Swap the onion

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

  1. Shallotfits better
  2. Carrotfits better
  3. Leekfits better
  4. Onionthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against veal, bread, pepper, butter, flour, parsley, clove. 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.

More veal heart recipes

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