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Roast Fillet of Veal

A roasted veal fillet stuffed with forcemeat, coated in fat or butter, served with butter sauce and lemon garnish.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 6 ingredients
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Why it works: Veal and pork are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 11% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 4,930 recipes. Both carry 4-heptenal, which smells creamy, biscuit. The science ↓

Roast Fillet of Veal

Oven, in the book's wordsA moderate oven

Ingredients

Directions

The book says “a moderate oven”. The 350°F (175°C) in the steps is the modern equivalent, not the book's own figure.

Prepare the veal

  1. Remove the bone from the center of the veal fillet.

  2. Fill the cavity with veal forcemeat.

  3. Create a pocket between the skin and flesh to add more forcemeat.

  4. Skewer the veal and bind it firmly into a round shape.

  5. Dust the veal with flour.

  6. Cover the veal with thin slices of fat pork or spread butter over it if you prefer not to use pork.

  7. Place the veal on a wire rack in a roasting pan.

Roast and baste

  1. Cook the veal in a moderate oven at 350°F (175°C) for 30 minutes per pound.

  2. Baste the veal frequently to prevent burning and ensure it turns a bright, dark brown.

  3. Just before removing from the oven, prepare ½ pint of butter sauce.

Finish and serve

  1. Transfer the cooked meat to a platter.

  2. Remove the pork bits from the platter.

  3. Pour the sauce into the roasting pan to dissolve the glaze.

  4. Remove the strings and skewers from the meat.

  5. Pour some brown gravy around the meat.

  6. Serve the rest in a tureen.

  7. Garnish with cut lemon.

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

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

  2. Flour + buttertop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together124,287 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  3. Pork + buttertop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together13,933 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-furfurylthiol (coffee, roasted).

  4. Butter + saucetop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together15,338 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

  5. Butter + lemontop 16% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together41,227 recipes

    Shared aroma: 3-hexenal (apple, fruity).

Flour and butter 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 fillet
Forms the main body of the roast and is the meat that is cooked and served.
Veal forcemeat
Fills the cavity and pocket, keeping the roast moist and adding flavour inside.
Flour
Dusted on the surface to help the outside brown during roasting.
Fat pork
Covers the meat, basting it with melting fat and protecting it from drying out.
Butter sauce
Dissolves the pan glaze and adds richness to the serving sauce.

The step that matters

Basting the veal frequently. Basting keeps the surface moist so it does not burn before the interior is cooked, and it builds the bright, dark brown colour through browning reactions as the fat and juices coat the meat.

Swap the lemon

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (veal, flour, pork, butter, sauce):

  1. Raisinfits about as well
  2. Avocadofits about as well
  3. Coconutfits about as well
  4. Lemonthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against veal, flour, pork, butter, sauce. 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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