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Veal Birds

Veal Birds are small veal squares rolled with bacon and onion, fried and simmered in a cream gravy.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 9 ingredients
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Why it works: Butter and cream are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 8% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 41,516 recipes. Both carry delta-dodecalactone, which smells sweet, creamy. The science ↓

Veal Birds

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the veal

  1. Cut the veal into small squares and pound flat.

  2. Spread with equal amounts of bacon and onion, then run through a meat grinder.

  3. Roll up the mixture and tie it securely.

  4. Roll in a mixture of flour, pepper, and salt.

Brown and simmer

  1. In a hot skillet, melt the butter and add the bacon slices.

  2. Brown the veal birds on all sides quickly.

  3. Cover with boiling water and let simmer for 2 hours.

  4. Thicken the gravy and stir in the cream.

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 + creamtop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together41,516 recipes

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

  2. Onion + peppertop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together68,474 recipes

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

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

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  4. Onion + buttertop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together42,912 recipes

    Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).

  5. Veal + oniontop 17% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together6,841 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2,4-decadienal (seaweed).

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 outer meat wrap that becomes tender during the long simmer.
Bacon
Adds fat and smoky savour that flavours the filling and the gravy.
Onion
Adds sweetness and aroma to the filling as it cooks.
Flour
Coats the rolls and thickens the gravy as it cooks in the liquid.
Cream
Adds richness and body to the finished gravy.

The step that matters

Simmer gently after browning. Once the birds are covered with boiling water, a gentle simmer keeps the veal tender. A hard boil toughens meat fibres and can break up the floured coating, so keep the heat low and steady for the full two hours.

Swap the onion

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

  1. Leekfits better
  2. Spinachfits about as well
  3. Potatofits about as well
  4. Onionthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against veal, butter, flour, pepper, cream. 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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