Name: Veal Collops, Made with Fresh Meat
Ingredients: Veal from the shoulder or fillet, sliced into ½ inch thick, 3 inches long, and 2 inches wide; Flour for dredging; Bacon, ¼ inch thick, equal to the number of veal slices; Butter, a small slice; Stock or water; Coarse sea salt to taste; Black pepper to taste

Why it works: Flour and butter are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 12% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 124,287 recipes. Both carry isobutyraldehyde, which smells malty, green. The science ↓

Veal Collops, Made with Fresh Meat

Ingredients

Veal from the shoulder or fillet, sliced into ½ inch thick, 3 inches long, and 2 inches wide
Flour for dredging
Bacon, ¼ inch thick, equal to the number of veal slices
Butter, a small slice
Stock or water
Coarse sea salt to taste
Black pepper to taste

Directions

Prepare the veal and bacon

Flatten the veal slices with a rolling pin and dredge them in flour.
Fry the bacon in a sauté pan until cooked, then remove and set aside.
Fry the veal in the bacon fat until browned on both sides.
Arrange the veal on a dish and place the bacon around it.

Make the sauce and serve

Pour out excess fat from the pan, add butter, and mix in a little flour.
Gradually moisten with stock or water, boil until smooth, then season with salt and pepper.
Pour the sauce around the veal and serve hot.

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.

Flour + buttertop 12% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together124,287 recipes

Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
Flour + peppertop 19% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together50,459 recipes

Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
Veal + peppertop 19% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together10,049 recipes

Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).
Butter + peppertop 21% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together85,593 recipes

Shared aroma: trans-2-nonenal (cardboard, fatty).
Veal + buttertop 23% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together9,381 recipes

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

Flour and butter 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: Forms the main meat portion, which browns in the fat and cooks through when thinly flattened.
Flour: Coats the veal to promote browning and, with butter, thickens the sauce.
Bacon: Adds smoky, salty flavour and fat that browns the veal.
Butter: Enriches the sauce with fat and flavour and helps form the roux base.

The step that matters

Gradually moisten with stock or water, boil until smooth. Adding liquid slowly to the flour and butter roux lets starch disperse evenly, so the sauce thickens without lumps.

“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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Veal Collops, Made with Fresh Meat