Skip to main content
Main

Breast Op Veal, Stuffed

A veal breast stuffed with a forcemeat mixture of bread, onion, seasonings, salt pork, butter, egg, and spices, baked with vegetables.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 7 ingredients
Jump to recipe ↓

Why it works: Bread and butter are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 7% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 27,232 recipes. Both carry delta-decalactone, which smells sweet, creamy. The science ↓

Breast Op Veal, Stuffed

Oven, in the book's wordsA moderate oven

Ingredients

Directions

The book says “a moderate oven”. The 350°F (175°C) in the steps is the modern equivalent, not the book's own figure.

Prepare the veal

  1. Make a pocket in the breast of veal by cutting the flesh free from the breast bones, leaving three sides intact.

  2. Prepare a bed of vegetable scraps, herbs, and pork in a roasting pan.

  3. Stuff the veal with forcemeat.

  4. Sew it up.

Roast and finish

  1. Place it on the vegetables.

  2. Top with thin slices of salt pork.

  3. Season with salt and pepper.

  4. Bake in a moderate oven at 350°F (175°C) for about one hour until thoroughly cooked.

  5. Strain the drippings and vegetables through a sieve.

  6. Add a little boiling water.

  7. Season to taste.

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

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

  2. Pork + oniontop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together18,214 recipes

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

  3. Veal + porktop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together4,930 recipes

    Shared aroma: 4-heptenal (creamy, biscuit).

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

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

  5. Pork + breadtop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together4,371 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-acetyl-1-pyrroline (popcorn, roasted).

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

What each ingredient does

Breast of veal
Forms the main meat body that is stuffed and becomes tender when roasted slowly.
Salt pork
Adds fat that bastes the meat and flavours the drippings as it renders.
Bread
Absorbs fat and juices in the forcemeat, keeping the stuffing moist and light.
Egg
Binds the forcemeat so it holds together when sliced.
Butter
Adds richness and helps the surface brown in the oven.

The step that matters

Sew up the stuffed veal securely. A loose or poorly sewn closure lets forcemeat escape and juices run out during roasting, leaving the stuffing dry and the meat unevenly cooked.

Swap the onion

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

  1. Capsicumfits better
  2. Potatofits better
  3. Asparagusfits better
  4. Onionthe original

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

You might also like

Brown BreadBrown Bread461 recipesPork CakePork Cake107 recipesRoast PorkRoast Pork82 recipesWhite BreadWhite Bread80 recipes