Why it works: Butter and flour are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 12% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 124,287 recipes. Both carry isobutyraldehyde, which smells malty, green. The science ↓
Roast Veal
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.
Roast
Preheat your oven to 350°F (175°C).
Place the veal in the oven and roast for two to three hours, basting frequently.
When nearly done, baste the veal with melted butter and dredge it with flour.
Allow the veal to brown nicely before removing it from the oven.
Make the gravy
For the gravy, mix flour with the fat in the pan or a little butter, and stir into the drippings.
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.
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Butter + flourtop 12% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together124,287 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
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Veal + buttertop 23% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together9,381 recipes
Shared aroma: 3-hexenal (apple, fruity).
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Veal + flourtop 28% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together5,886 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
- Forms the main body of the roast, cooking gently to stay tender and moist.
- Melted butter
- Adds fat and moisture to the surface and helps it take on a golden color.
- Flour
- Dusted on the roast to aid browning, and mixed with fat to thicken the gravy.
- Drippings
- Concentrated roast juices and fat that give the gravy its savory flavor and body.
The step that matters
Basting the veal frequently. Regular basting keeps the surface moist and helps it brown evenly, while the fat carries heat to the meat over the long roast.
“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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