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Roast Fillet of Veal

A slow-roasted veal fillet stuffed with breadcrumb and herb dressing, served with bacon garnish and lemon slices.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 10 ingredients
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Why it works: Parsley and lemon match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 14,037 recipes. Both carry beta-phellandrene, which smells minty, terpene. The science ↓

Roast Fillet of Veal

Oven, in the book's wordsA slow oven

Ingredients

Directions

The book says “a slow oven”. The 300°F (150°C) in the steps is the modern equivalent, not the book's own figure.

Prepare the veal

  1. Remove the meat from the bone of the leg of veal and secure it into a round shape with skewers.

  2. Fry the sliced onion in butter until well cooked.

  3. Pour the butter and onion juice into the bread crumbs and mix the bread crumbs thoroughly.

  4. Fill the cavity with the dressing made from bread crumbs, parsley, summer savory, salt, and pepper.

Roast and serve

  1. Roast the veal in a slow oven at 300°F (150°C), allowing 15 minutes per pound, basting frequently with beef dripping.

  2. Remove the veal from the pan.

  3. Prepare a rich brown gravy.

  4. Garnish the dish with fried bacon and slices of lemon before serving.

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. Parsley + lemontop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together14,037 recipes

    Shared aroma: beta-phellandrene (minty, terpene).

  2. Parsley + summer savorytop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together241 recipes

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

  3. Pepper + parsleytop 2% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together34,122 recipes

    Shared aroma: 4'-methylacetophenone (bitter almond).

  4. Pepper + lemontop 3% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together27,047 recipes

    Shared aroma: trans-2-nonenal (cardboard, fatty).

  5. Summer savory + lemontop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together115 recipes

    Shared aroma: beta-phellandrene (minty, terpene).

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

What each ingredient does

Leg of veal
Forms the main body of the roast and provides the meat that is cooked and sliced.
Bread crumbs
Absorb the butter and onion juices, keeping the stuffing moist and tender inside the roast.
Butter
Adds richness and flavour to the onion and bread crumb dressing and helps the surface brown.
Onion
Adds sweetness and savoury depth to the dressing as it cooks down in butter.

The step that matters

Roast in a slow oven, basting frequently. Veal is lean, so cooking it low and slow at 300°F with regular basting keeps the meat moist and tender. Roasting too hot dries the outside before the centre is cooked through.

Swap the onion

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (veal, pepper, bread, parsley, summer savory, butter, lemon):

  1. Shallotfits better
  2. Carrotfits better
  3. Turnipfits better
  4. Onionthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against veal, pepper, bread, parsley, summer savory, butter, lemon. 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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