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Veal with Green Peas and Dumplings

A veal dish simmered with green peas and small dumplings.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
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Why it works: Butter and bread are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 7% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 27,232 recipes. Both carry delta-decalactone, which smells sweet, creamy. The science ↓

Veal with Green Peas and Dumplings

Ingredients

Directions

Sear the veal

  1. Rub the veal with salt and pepper.

  2. Heat 1 tablespoon of butter in a kettle, add the veal, and turn it once.

  3. Add 1 cup of stock and bring to a boil.

Make the dumplings and finish

  1. Stir 3 tablespoons of flour smooth in water and add slowly to the liquid.

  2. Shape little round dumplings from the dough made with 2 eggs, 2 teaspoons of butter, salt, milk, and bread crumbs.

  3. Add the dumplings to the boiling liquid and sprinkle ½ cup of green peas over them.

  4. Cover the kettle and cook for a few minutes.

  5. Slice the meat before serving and pour the peas and dumplings over it.

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. Butter + breadtop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together27,232 recipes

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

  2. Butter + milktop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together81,283 recipes

    Shared aroma: (z)-4-heptenal (biscuit, cream).

  3. Milk + breadtop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together11,466 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-undecenal (sweet).

  4. Bread + peastop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together804 recipes

    Shared aroma: hexyl acetate (fruity, apple).

  5. Butter + flourtop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together124,287 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

Butter and flour barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 124,287 recipes: they work on texture and structure more than aroma.

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

What each ingredient does

Veal
Is the main protein that becomes tender during slow simmering in the covered kettle.
Flour
Stirred into water and added to the liquid, it thickens the cooking liquid.
Eggs
Bind the dumpling dough so the dumplings hold their shape while cooking.
Bread crumbs
Add body to the dumpling dough, giving it a soft, structured texture.
Green peas
Add sweetness and a bright, fresh flavor to the finished dish.

The step that matters

Adding the dumplings to the boiling liquid. The liquid must be at a full boil when the dough goes in, so the outside of each dumpling sets quickly and holds its shape instead of breaking apart or turning soggy.

Swap the peas

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

  1. Almondfits about as well
  2. Walnutfits about as well
  3. Chestnutfits about as well
  4. Peasthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against veal, butter, pepper, flour, egg, milk, bread. 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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