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Veal Heart

A baked veal heart stuffed with bread crumbs, onion, and butter, then simmered in water.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 8 ingredients
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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 ↓

Veal Heart

Ingredients

Directions

The book gives no oven temperature. The 350°F (175°C) in the steps was added when the recipe was transcribed, as a starting point.

Prepare

  1. Wash the veal heart thoroughly inside and out in cold water.

  2. Trim off the valves and cordy tissues with a sharp knife.

  3. Fill the heart with a mixture of bread crumbs, salt, pepper, onion, and melted butter.

  4. Dredge the filled heart with flour, pepper, and salt.

Bake

  1. Place the heart in a covered baking dish with 1 quart of cold water.

  2. Bake at 350°F (175°C) for 2 hours, adjusting time for size.

  3. During the last 30 minutes, remove the cover to allow the meat to brown.

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. Pepper + oniontop 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. Bread + oniontop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together8,676 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 heart
Is the main meat, cooked slowly until tender in the covered dish.
Dried bread crumbs
Absorb the melted butter and juices, keeping the stuffing moist and giving it body.
Melted butter
Adds fat and richness to the stuffing and helps it brown.
Flour
Dries the outside of the meat and helps it form a browned surface.

The step that matters

Removing the cover for the last 30 minutes. Covered cooking traps steam and keeps the meat moist. Uncovering near the end lets dry heat brown the surface, so leaving the cover on too long leaves the heart pale.

Swap the onion

The recipe marks onion as optional. How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (veal, bread, pepper, butter, flour):

  1. Shallotfits better
  2. Leekfits better
  3. Capsicumfits better
  4. Onionthe original

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

More veal heart recipes

Stuffed 3 See all 3 →

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