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Veal Pocketbooks

Veal pocketbooks are rolled veal strips stuffed with oysters, bread crumbs, and herbs, baked in buttered water.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 9 ingredients
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Why it works: Parsley and pepper 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 Pocketbooks

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

  1. Spread a mixture of bread crumbs, minced salt pork, parsley, coarse sea salt, and black pepper over each slice of veal.

  2. Place an oyster on top of the dressing.

  3. Roll up the veal and secure with a skewer or string.

Bake and serve

  1. Place the rolled veal in a dripping pan with boiling water and add 1 tablespoon of butter.

  2. Bake at 350°F (175°C) for about 1 hour, basting frequently.

  3. Serve with brown gravy.

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. Parsley + peppertop 2% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together34,122 recipes

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

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

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

  3. Veal + porktop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together4,930 recipes

    Shared aroma: 4-heptenal (creamy, biscuit).

  4. Oyster + buttertop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together8,184 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2,6-nonadienal (cucumber, green).

  5. Pork + oystertop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,255 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2,6-nonadienal (cucumber, green).

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

What each ingredient does

Lean veal
Forms the main body of the dish, enclosing the stuffing as it cooks.
Bread crumbs
Absorb juices and give the stuffing body so it holds together inside the roll.
Minced salt pork
Adds fat and savory flavor that keeps the lean veal moist as it bakes.
Oysters
Contribute a briny, savory flavor to the stuffing.
Butter
Adds fat and richness to the pan liquid, aiding browning and flavor.

The step that matters

Basting frequently while baking. Lean veal dries out easily over an hour in the oven. Regular basting with pan liquid keeps the surface moist and helps it brown evenly.

Swap the parsley

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

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

Fit is the average pairing score against veal, bread, pork, pepper, oyster, butter. 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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