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Veal Cakes, Small

Small veal cakes fried with bacon, coated in flour, served with brown sauce.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 5 ingredients
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Why it works: Flour and sauce are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 18% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 8,078 recipes. Both carry ethanol, which smells alcoholic, ethereal. The science ↓

Veal Cakes, Small

Ingredients

Directions

Shape the cakes

  1. Mince and mix the veal and bacon together.

  2. Divide the mixture into small cakes.

  3. Dredge the cakes in flour.

Fry and serve

  1. Fry the cakes in hot fat over gentle heat for about 15 minutes.

  2. Drain the cakes well and serve in a hot dish with brown sauce poured over them.

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. Flour + saucetop 18% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together8,078 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

  2. Veal + saucetop 27% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together2,072 recipes

    Shared aroma: decanoic acid (soapy, waxy).

  3. Veal + flourtop 28% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together5,886 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

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

What each ingredient does

Veal
Forms the main body of the cakes and gives them their meaty flavour and firm texture.
Bacon
Adds fat and savoury flavour, keeping the minced mixture moist during frying.
Flour
Forms a dry coat on the cakes that helps them brown and crisp in the fat.
Hot fat
Conducts heat to the cakes, browning the outside and cooking the inside.
Brown sauce
Adds moisture and rich savoury flavour to the drained cakes.

The step that matters

Fry over gentle heat. Gentle heat lets the minced meat cook through evenly while the flour coating browns slowly. Excess heat would scorch the outside before the centre of the cakes is cooked.

“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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