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Fricandeau of Veal

A veal dish simmered with bacon, herbs, spices, and vegetables, finished with a glaze.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 11 ingredients
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Why it works: Celery and carrot match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 10,173 recipes. Both carry myristicin, which smells spice, warm. The science ↓

Fricandeau of Veal

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Cut a thick slice from the fillet of veal and trim it neatly.

  2. Lard the veal slice thickly with fat bacon.

Braise

  1. In a stew pan, combine the carrot, turnip, celery, savory herbs, mace, allspice, bay leaves, and some bacon slices.

  2. Place the veal over the bacon with the larded side facing up, dust with salt, and pour the gravy or stock around it.

  3. Bring to a boil, then simmer gently for 2.5 to 3 hours, basting frequently.

Glaze and serve

  1. Once done, remove the veal, skim off the fat, strain the gravy, and boil it quickly to a strong glaze.

  2. Cover the veal with the glaze and serve hot with green peas.

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. Celery + carrottop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together10,173 recipes

    Shared aroma: myristicin (spice, warm).

  2. Carrot + turniptop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together8,002 recipes

    Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).

  3. Celery + turniptop 2% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together4,418 recipes

    Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).

  4. Celery + peppertop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together16,012 recipes

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

  5. Allspice + peppertop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together6,395 recipes

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

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

What each ingredient does

Fillet of veal
Forms the main body of the dish, becoming tender through long, gentle simmering.
Bacon
Adds fat and savoury flavour as it melts into the veal and the braising liquid.
Gravy or stock
Provides the moist cooking liquid that gently cooks the veal and later becomes the glaze.
Celery
Flavours the braising liquid as its aromatic compounds release during simmering.

The step that matters

Simmering gently with frequent basting. A rolling boil toughens meat proteins and dries the surface, while gentle simmering keeps the veal tender. Frequent basting keeps the top moist and adds flavour.

Swap the mace

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (veal, allspice, celery, carrot, turnip, pepper):

  1. Parsleyfits better
  2. Marjoramfits better
  3. Thymefits better
  4. Macethe original

Fit is the average pairing score against veal, allspice, celery, carrot, turnip, pepper. 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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