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 of Veal, Stuffed
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 stuffing
Soak 3 cups of bread in cold water.
Chop 1 oz of onion.
Fry the onion in 1 oz of butter until yellow.
Wring the bread dry.
Add the bread to the butter and onion.
Season the mixture with salt, pepper, and thyme.
Stir the mixture until hot.
Remove it from heat.
Stir in the yolk of 1 egg.
Stuff and roast
Cut a pocket in the breast of veal, leaving three sides intact to hold the stuffing.
Prepare a bed of vegetable scraps, herbs, and salt pork in a roasting pan.
Use the mixture to stuff the veal.
Stuff the veal with forcemeat.
Sew the veal closed.
Place the veal on the vegetables.
Top the veal with thin slices of salt pork.
Season the veal with salt and pepper.
Bake at 350°F (175°C) for about one hour until thoroughly cooked.
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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Bread + buttertop 7% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together27,232 recipes
Shared aroma: delta-decalactone (sweet, creamy).
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Pork + oniontop 10% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together18,214 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).
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Veal + porktop 11% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together4,930 recipes
Shared aroma: 4-heptenal (creamy, biscuit).
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Onion + peppertop 11% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together68,474 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).
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Pork + breadtop 13% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked 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
- Veal breast
- Forms the main body of the dish, cooking through to become tender and sliceable.
- Bread
- Absorbs moisture and gives the stuffing a soft, light body.
- Butter
- Adds richness and carries the flavor of the cooked onion into the stuffing.
- Egg
- Binds the stuffing so it holds together when sliced.
- Salt pork
- Adds fat that bastes the veal and flavors the roasting pan.
The step that matters
Stir in the yolk of 1 egg. The stuffing must be off the heat before the egg yolk goes in, because heat can scramble the yolk into lumps instead of letting it bind the bread evenly.
Swap the onion
How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (veal, pork, bread, butter, egg, pepper):
- Capsicumfits better
- Potatofits better
- Asparagusfits better
- 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.
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