Why it works: Mushroom and butter are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 7% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 12,525 recipes. Both carry trans-2-decenal, which smells waxy, orange. The science ↓
Stuffed Veal with Garnish of Green Peas
Ingredients
Directions
Prepare the veal
Remove the large bones from the loin of veal.
Stuff the cavities with a mixture of chopped pork, breadcrumbs, seasoning, and chopped mushrooms.
Cover the sides with greased sheets of thick writing paper.
Place 1 cup of soup stock or gravy in the dripping pan.
Roast the veal
Baste the veal well with butter and water for 1 hour.
Cook for 12 minutes per pound.
Remove the paper during the last 30 minutes.
Dredge the veal with flour.
Baste the veal with butter.
Brown the veal nicely.
Make the gravy and serve
Keep the veal hot while skimming the fat from the gravy.
Stir in ½ cup of chopped mushrooms into the gravy.
Stir in a little browned flour into the gravy.
Cook the gravy for 3 minutes.
Serve the gravy in a boat.
Arrange boiled green peas around the veal.
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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Mushroom + buttertop 7% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together12,525 recipes
Shared aroma: trans-2-decenal (waxy, orange).
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Pork + mushroomtop 8% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together3,875 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-methoxy-4-propylphenol (allspice, anise).
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Mushroom + peastop 9% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together890 recipes
Shared aroma: 1-octen-3-ol (mushroom, earthy).
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Veal + porktop 11% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together4,930 recipes
Shared aroma: 4-heptenal (creamy, biscuit).
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Butter + flourtop 12% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together124,287 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
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 loin
- Forms the main roasted meat, which turns tender and juicy when cooked gently.
- Chopped pork
- Adds fat and moisture to the stuffing, keeping it from drying out as it cooks.
- Breadcrumbs
- Absorb juices in the stuffing, giving it a soft, moist body.
- Butter
- Basting fat that promotes browning and a rich, golden surface on the veal.
- Flour
- Dredging coat that browns in the fat and thickens the gravy.
- Soup stock or gravy
- Liquid in the dripping pan that forms the base of the pan gravy.
The step that matters
Brown the veal nicely. Browning relies on the Maillard reaction between proteins and sugars at the surface, which gives flavour and colour. Pale veal lacks depth, and the flour and butter coating needs enough heat to brown without burning.
Swap the peas
How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (veal, pork, mushroom, butter, flour):
- Chestnutfits better
- Beansfits better
- Almondfits better
- Peasthe original
Fit is the average pairing score against veal, pork, mushroom, 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.
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