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Veal Birds

Veal slices rolled with seasoned crumbs, fried, then simmered in cream and served on toast.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 15 ingredients
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Why it works: Pepper and lemon match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 3% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 27,047 recipes. Both carry trans-2-nonenal, which smells cardboard, fatty. The science ↓

Veal Birds

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the filling

  1. Pound the veal slices thoroughly and trim them to 2 inches wide by 4 inches long.

  2. Chop the trimmings finely and mix with half as much cracker crumbs.

  3. Season the mixture with salt, pepper, celery salt, cayenne, lemon juice, and onion juice.

  4. Moisten with stock and enough egg to hold the mixture together.

  5. Add melted butter or chopped fat salt pork to the mixture.

Roll and fry

  1. Spread the mixture on the veal, roll it up, and secure with skewers or toothpicks.

  2. Season the rolled veal with salt and pepper, then roll in flour.

  3. Fry in butter until golden brown.

Cook and serve

  1. Transfer to a stew pan, add cream to nearly cover, and cook for 30 minutes.

  2. Remove the skewers and serve on toast or zephyrettes.

  3. Strain the remaining cream and pour around the veal or serve with a thin white sauce.

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 + lemontop 3% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together27,047 recipes

    Shared aroma: trans-2-nonenal (cardboard, fatty).

  2. Celery + lemontop 3% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together3,467 recipes

    Shared aroma: beta-phellandrene (minty, terpene).

  3. Pepper + celerytop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together16,012 recipes

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

  4. Celery + oniontop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together18,518 recipes

    Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).

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

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

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

What each ingredient does

Veal
Forms the outer wrap that holds the filling and becomes tender during simmering.
Cracker crumbs
Absorb moisture and bind the filling so it holds together when rolled.
Egg
Binds the filling, helping it set and hold its shape during cooking.
Butter
Adds richness and promotes browning on the outside of the rolls during frying.
Cream
Creates a rich, moist sauce that gently cooks the rolls and adds body.

The step that matters

Frying until golden brown. Browning the flour-dusted outside builds flavour and a golden surface. Cooking in hot butter over steady heat, without crowding the pan, gives even colour before the rolls are simmered.

Swap the onion

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (veal, pepper, celery, lemon, egg, butter, flour):

  1. Leekfits better
  2. Spinachfits better
  3. Carrotfits better
  4. Onionthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against veal, pepper, celery, lemon, egg, 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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