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To Roast Veal

A veal roast stuffed with a bread, onion, and herb mixture, baked with carrots and onions, served with a thickened gravy.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 13 ingredients
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Why it works: Pepper and sage match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 3% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 5,388 recipes. Both carry beta-phellandrene, which smells minty, terpene. The science ↓

To Roast Veal

Oven, in the book's wordsA hot oven

Ingredients

Directions

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

Prepare

  1. Have your butcher loosen the meat from the ribs, leaving an opening at one end.

  2. Rub coarse sea salt inside and out of the meat.

  3. Soak the bread pieces in cold water, then squeeze out as much water as possible.

  4. Season the soaked bread with pepper, salt, sage, chopped onion, beaten egg, and butter.

  5. Fill the opening in the meat with the dressing and sew it up.

Roast

  1. Place the meat in a roasting pan with hot water, sliced carrots, and onion.

  2. Bake in a hot oven (400°F / 200°C), basting frequently until nearly done.

  3. Once browned, transfer to a hot platter.

Make the gravy and serve

  1. Strain the gravy, adding water as needed while it boils away.

  2. Thicken the gravy with wetted flour, adjusting seasoning to taste.

  3. Serve the gravy in a sauce boat alongside the veal.

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. Pepper + sagetop 3% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together5,388 recipes

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

  2. Pepper + carrottop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together14,555 recipes

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

  3. Onion + carrottop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together21,601 recipes

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

  4. Bread + buttertop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together27,232 recipes

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

  5. Sage + carrottop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together480 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

Veal
Forms the main meat that becomes tender and juicy during slow roasting.
Stale bread
Absorbs liquid and forms the body of the dressing that fills the meat.
Egg
Binds the seasoned bread so the stuffing holds together when cooked.
Butter
Adds fat for richness and helps the surface brown in the hot oven.
Flour
Thickens the pan juices into a smooth gravy when mixed with liquid.

The step that matters

Basting frequently while roasting. Regular basting keeps the surface moist and helps it brown evenly, while the juices in the pan build flavour for the gravy.

Swap the onion

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

  1. Capsicumfits better
  2. Leekfits better
  3. Spinachfits better
  4. Onionthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against veal, bread, pepper, sage, egg, butter, carrot. 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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