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Fillet of Veal A-LA-mode

A veal fillet seasoned and filled with a bread‑onion butter dressing, then braised until tender.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 8 ingredients
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Why it works: Pepper and marjoram match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 3% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 2,609 recipes. Both carry estragole, which smells anise, licorice. The science ↓

Fillet of Veal A-LA-mode

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the veal

  1. Cut deep incisions in the veal about an inch apart and season with salt and pepper.

  2. Make the dressing by mixing the crumbled bread, chopped onions, butter, and additional salt and pepper to taste.

  3. If desired, add a little powdered marjoram or thyme to the dressing.

  4. Fill the incisions in the veal with the dressing.

Cook and finish

  1. Place the veal in a pot with 3½ cups of water and cover tightly.

  2. Cook slowly for at least 2 hours.

  3. Remove the veal when done and thicken the gravy with a little flour.

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. Pepper + marjoramtop 3% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together2,609 recipes

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

  2. Pepper + oniontop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together68,474 recipes

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

  3. Marjoram + flourtop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,265 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  4. Onion + marjoramtop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,056 recipes

    Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).

  5. Butter + flourtop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked 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 fillet
Forms the main body of the dish, becoming tender through slow, moist cooking.
Baker's loaf
Soaks up butter and juices in the dressing, giving it a soft, moist body.
Onions
Add sweetness and aroma to the dressing as they soften during cooking.
Butter
Adds fat and richness to the dressing, carrying flavour and moisture.
Flour
Thickens the cooking liquid into a gravy.

The step that matters

Slow cooking in a covered pot. Cooking gently and covered keeps the lean veal moist and lets connective tissue break down gradually. Too much heat or an uncovered pot can dry the meat and toughen it.

Swap the marjoram

The recipe marks marjoram as optional. How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (veal, pepper, onion, butter, flour):

  1. Parsleyfits better
  2. Turmericfits better
  3. Sagefits about as well
  4. Marjoramthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against veal, pepper, onion, 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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