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Breast of Veal Stewed White

A veal breast stuffed with forcemeat, served with a gravy of oysters, lemon, and butter.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 13 ingredients
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Why it works: Nutmeg and pepper match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 7% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 13,015 recipes. Both carry 4'-methylacetophenone, which smells bitter almond. The science ↓

Breast of Veal Stewed White

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the veal and forcemeat

  1. Cut a piece off each end of the veal breast.

  2. Boil the sweetbread, then chop it finely.

  3. In a bowl, mix the sweetbread, grated bread, beef suet, eggs, milk, nutmeg, salt, and pepper to make a forcemeat.

  4. Stuff the thin part of the veal breast with some of the forcemeat and form the rest into small balls.

  5. Fry the balls until golden brown.

Cook and serve

  1. Skewer the skin of the veal breast closed, dust with flour, and boil it in a cloth in a mixture of milk and water.

  2. For the gravy, use the cut-off ends of the veal, add oysters, lemon juice, and butter rolled in flour.

  3. Once the veal is cooked, place it on a dish, garnish with the fried balls, and pour the gravy over it.

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. Nutmeg + peppertop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together13,015 recipes

    Shared aroma: 4'-methylacetophenone (bitter almond).

  2. Beef + peppertop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together18,971 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).

  3. Bread + milktop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together11,466 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-undecenal (sweet).

  4. Veal + beeftop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together3,784 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2,6-nonadienal (cucumber, green).

  5. Beef + milktop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together3,759 recipes

    Shared aroma: 1-hexanal (fruit).

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

What each ingredient does

Eggs
Bind the forcemeat so it holds together when stuffed and fried.
Grated bread
Adds bulk and absorbs moisture in the forcemeat, keeping it tender.
Beef suet
Adds fat to the forcemeat, keeping it moist and rich as it cooks.
Butter
Enriches the gravy and, rolled in flour, thickens it.
Flour
Dusts the veal and thickens the gravy when mixed with butter.
Oysters
Contribute a briny, savoury flavour to the gravy.

The step that matters

Skewer the skin of the veal breast closed. If the skin is not sealed tightly, the stuffing can leak out during the long simmer, leaving the forcemeat dry and the cooking liquid cloudy.

Swap the nutmeg

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (veal, bread, beef, egg, milk, pepper, oyster):

  1. Nutmegthe original
  2. Parsleyfits about as well
  3. Marjoramfits about as well
  4. Celeryfits about as well

Fit is the average pairing score against veal, bread, beef, egg, milk, pepper, oyster. 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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