Name: Stuffed Veal
Ingredients: shoulder of veal; sliced onion; salt; pepper; flour; drippings from the pan; boiling water

Why it works: Onion and pepper are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 11% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 68,474 recipes. Both carry 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine, which smells earthy, pea. The science ↓

Stuffed Veal

Ingredients

Directions

The book gives no oven temperature. The 400°F (200°C) in the steps was added when the recipe was transcribed, as a starting point.

Prepare the veal

Remove the bone from the shoulder of veal.
Stuff the cavity with sliced onion, salt, and pepper.
Dredge the stuffed veal with flour.

Roast

Baste with the drippings in the pan.
Bake at 400°F (200°C) for 20 minutes per pound.

Make the gravy and serve

To make gravy, add a heaping tablespoon of flour to the pan after removing the meat.
Stir in boiling water to create the gravy.
Serve with potatoes around the platter.

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.

Onion + peppertop 11% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together68,474 recipes

Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).
Veal + oniontop 17% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together6,841 recipes

Shared aroma: 2,4-decadienal (seaweed).
Onion + flourtop 17% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together32,460 recipes

Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
Pepper + flourtop 19% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together50,459 recipes

Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
Veal + peppertop 19% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together10,049 recipes

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

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

What each ingredient does

Shoulder of veal: Is the main cut of meat, providing the body of the dish.
Flour: Dredges the veal and thickens the pan drippings into gravy.
Drippings from the pan: Add concentrated meat flavor and moisture when basted over the veal.
Sliced onion: Sits inside the cavity, adding aromatic flavor as the veal cooks.