Why it works: Veal and egg are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 28% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 6,845 recipes. Both carry 2-nonenal, which smells fatty, green. The science ↓
Veal with Bacon
Ingredients
Directions
Fry the bacon in a skillet until crispy, then remove and set aside.
Dip the veal steak in the egg, then coat with cracker crumbs.
Brown the coated veal in the skillet.
Pour boiling water over the veal until it is covered.
Cover the skillet and let it simmer slowly for about one hour, until the meat is tender and the water reduces to form a gravy.
Remove the veal, place it on a platter, pour the gravy over it, and garnish with the reserved bacon.
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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Veal + eggtop 28% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together6,845 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).
Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs
What each ingredient does
- Veal steak
- Is the main protein, becoming tender through slow, moist simmering.
- Egg
- Acts as a binder so the cracker crumbs adhere to the veal.
- Cracker crumbs
- Form a crisp, browned coating when the veal is seared.
- Bacon
- Adds smoky, salty fat flavor and serves as a crisp garnish.
The step that matters
Browning the coated veal. Searing the crumb coating in the skillet builds browned flavor and helps the coating hold during simmering. Pale coating may become soggy or fall off in the liquid.
“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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