Skip to main content
Main

To Roast Veal

Roast veal seasoned with salt, pepper, butter, and flour, baked in an oven with water for basting.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 6 ingredients
Jump to recipe ↓

Why it works: Butter and flour are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 12% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 124,287 recipes. Both carry isobutyraldehyde, which smells malty, green. The science ↓

To Roast Veal

Oven, in the book's wordsA hot oven

Ingredients

Directions

The book says “a hot oven”. The 400°F (200°C) in the steps is the modern equivalent, not the book's own figure.

Prepare the veal

  1. Rinse the veal in cold water and remove any bloody parts.

  2. Mix the salt and pepper, using 1 tablespoon of salt and ¼ teaspoon of pepper for each pound of meat.

  3. Wipe the meat dry and rub the seasoning into all parts.

  4. Shape the meat neatly and fasten it with skewers.

  5. Place the meat on a spit or set it on a trivet or muffin rings in a pan.

Roast

  1. Dot the upper surface with bits of butter and sprinkle a little flour over it.

  2. Add 1 pint of water to the pan for basting.

  3. Roast in a hot oven at 400°F (200°C) or in a Dutch oven, basting occasionally.

  4. Turn the meat if necessary to ensure even cooking.

  5. If the water evaporates, add more to prevent burning.

  6. Roast for 15 minutes per pound; a 4-5 pound piece will take about 1 to 1.25 hours.

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

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  2. Pepper + flourtop 19% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together50,459 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  3. Veal + peppertop 19% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together10,049 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).

  4. Pepper + buttertop 21% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together85,593 recipes

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

  5. Veal + buttertop 23% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together9,381 recipes

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

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
The main cut that becomes tender and browned during roasting.
Butter
Adds fat and richness, helping the surface brown and stay moist.
Flour
Sprinkled on the surface, it helps the exterior brown and form a crust.

The step that matters

Adding water when it evaporates. If the pan runs dry, drippings and the surface can scorch and burn. Keeping liquid in the pan for basting moderates the heat at the pan's surface and keeps the meat moist.

“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.

More roast veal recipes

Fillet 39Loin 30Neck 13Breast 11Pot 3Chump 3 See all 78 →

You might also like

Veal PattiesVeal Patties50 recipesBeef, Mutton, or Veal BrothBeef, Mutton, or Veal Broth6 recipesTomato SoupTomato Soup526 recipesBrown BreadBrown Bread461 recipes