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Roast Veal Breast, Stuffed

A veal breast stuffed with bread or potato dressing, seasoned, and roasted until browned and tender.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 11 ingredients
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Why it works: Ginger and allspice match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 2,620 recipes. Both carry estragole, which smells anise, licorice. The science ↓

Roast Veal Breast, Stuffed

Oven, in the book's wordsA hot oven

Ingredients

Directions

The book says “a hot oven”. The 400°F (200°C) in the steps is the modern equivalent, not the book's own figure.

Prepare

  1. Ask the butcher to make an opening on the underside of the veal breast.

  2. Stuff the opening with bread dressing or potato stuffing and sew up the ends.

  3. Dredge the stuffed veal with coarse sea salt, black pepper, ground ginger, and flour.

Roast

  1. Place the veal in a roasting pan with 2 tablespoons of beef or poultry fat, the chopped onion, and a little boiling water.

  2. Roast in a hot oven at 400°F (200°C), turning and basting often until browned and tender.

  3. Add a little allspice and bay leaf for seasoning if desired.

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. Ginger + allspicetop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together2,620 recipes

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

  2. Pepper + allspicetop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together6,395 recipes

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

  3. Beef + oniontop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together17,092 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).

  4. Pepper + gingertop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together6,800 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).

  5. Ginger + oniontop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together7,595 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).

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

What each ingredient does

Veal breast
Forms the main body of the dish and becomes tender with slow, moist roasting.
Flour
Dusts the surface so it browns and helps form a flavourful crust.
Beef or poultry fat
Carries heat across the surface and promotes browning in the roasting pan.
Bread dressing or potato stuffing
Fills the pocket, adding moisture and flavour to the meat as it cooks.

The step that matters

Turning and basting often while roasting. Frequent basting keeps the surface moist and turning promotes even browning, so the outside colours well before the thick meat is fully tender.

Swap the allspice

The recipe marks allspice as optional. How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (veal, bread, pepper, ginger, flour, beef, onion):

  1. Turmericfits better
  2. Garlicfits better
  3. Marjoramfits about as well
  4. Allspicethe original

Fit is the average pairing score against veal, bread, pepper, ginger, flour, beef, onion. 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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