Skip to main content
Main

Quenelles of Veal

Quenelles of Veal are poached veal dumplings served with Veloute sauce and vegetables.

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

Why it works: Egg and butter are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 17% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 118,967 recipes. Both carry decanal, which smells soap, orange peel. The science ↓

Quenelles of Veal

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the forcemeat

  1. Mince the veal twice, then pound it with the panada.

  2. Add the eggs, melted butter, and seasonings.

  3. Pass the mixture through a wire sieve.

Shape and poach

  1. Using dessert spoons dipped in boiling water, shape the mixture into egg shapes.

  2. Place the quenelles in a buttered sauté pan.

  3. Gently pour boiling salted water over them.

  4. Poach very gently for about 12 minutes, turning them over in the water.

  5. Drain on paper or a towel.

Serve

  1. Serve on a potato border and pour Veloute sauce over, garnishing with peas or other delicate vegetables.

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. Egg + buttertop 17% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together118,967 recipes

    Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).

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

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

  3. Butter + peppertop 21% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together85,593 recipes

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

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

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

  5. Veal + eggtop 28% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked 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

Raw veal
Provides the main protein that sets into a firm, tender quenelle when poached.
Eggs
Bind the mixture and help it set firm during gentle poaching.
Butter
Adds fat and richness, keeping the quenelles moist and tender.
Panada
Adds starch and moisture, giving the forcemeat a smoother, lighter texture.

The step that matters

Poaching very gently. Boiling or rough agitation can toughen and break the delicate protein structure, so the quenelles should poach at a bare simmer and be turned carefully.

“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

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