Why it works: Lemon and parsley match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 14,037 recipes. Both carry beta-phellandrene, which smells minty, terpene. The science ↓
Veal Olives
Ingredients
Directions
Prepare the veal
Cut two thin steaks from a fillet of veal and beat them.
Rub the steaks with the yolk of an egg.
Cut the steaks into strips 4 to 5 inches long.
Lay a thin piece of fat bacon over each strip.
Sprinkle the strips with bread crumbs, lemon peel, parsley, cayenne pepper, and salt.
Roll each strip and secure it with a wooden skewer.
Dip the rolls in beaten egg, then in bread crumbs and chopped parsley.
Fry and make the gravy
Heat clarified beef dripping in a frying pan until boiling.
Fry the veal olives until light brown.
In a separate pot, combine gravy, lemon pickle, walnut catsup, browning, cayenne pepper, and salt.
Thicken the gravy with flour and butter.
Serve
Place the veal olives on a hot dish and strain the hot gravy over them.
Garnish with lemon pickle, forcemeat balls, and pickled mushrooms.
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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Lemon + parsleytop 1% of all pairsSmell alikestrongCooked together14,037 recipes
Shared aroma: beta-phellandrene (minty, terpene).
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Parsley + peppertop 2% of all pairsSmell alikestrongCooked together34,122 recipes
Shared aroma: 4'-methylacetophenone (bitter almond).
-
Lemon + peppertop 3% of all pairsSmell alikestrongCooked together27,047 recipes
Shared aroma: trans-2-nonenal (cardboard, fatty).
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Parsley + walnuttop 7% of all pairsSmell alikestrongCooked together865 recipes
Shared aroma: 2,4-decadienal (seaweed).
-
Pepper + beeftop 10% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together18,971 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 main meat wrapper that becomes tender when cooked gently and rolled.
- Bacon fat
- Melts during frying, adding moisture and rich flavour to the lean veal.
- Egg
- Binds the coating so the bread crumbs stick and form a golden crust.
- Bread crumbs
- Form a crisp, browned outer coating when fried in the dripping.
- Gravy
- Provides a savoury liquid that moistens the olives and carries the seasonings.
- Flour
- Thickens the gravy so it coats the veal olives evenly.
The step that matters
Fry the veal olives until light brown. The dripping must be boiling hot before the rolls go in, so the coating sears quickly and seals in juices. Frying too long or too cool can dry the veal or leave the crumbs greasy.
Swap the walnut
How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (veal, egg, bread, lemon, parsley, pepper, beef):
- Walnutthe original
- Chickpeafits about as well
- Peasfits about as well
- Beansfits about as well
Fit is the average pairing score against veal, egg, bread, lemon, parsley, pepper, beef. 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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