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Veal Olives

Veal olives are rolled veal slices wrapped in bacon, seasoned with forcemeat, shallot, cayenne, then baked and served with brown gravy and mushrooms.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 9 ingredients
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Why it works: Shallot and mushroom are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 4% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 1,982 recipes. Both carry 2,4-decadienal, which smells seaweed. The science ↓

Veal Olives

Ingredients

Directions

The book gives no oven temperature. The 400°F (200°C) in the steps was added when the recipe was transcribed, as a starting point.

Prepare the olives

  1. Cut long thin slices of veal and beat them.

  2. Lay the slices on thin slices of fat bacon.

  3. Spread a layer of forcemeat seasoned with shredded shallot and cayenne over the bacon.

  4. Roll the slices tightly to about 2-3 inches long and fasten with small skewers.

Bake and serve

  1. Rub the rolls with egg and bake at 400°F (200°C) until light brown.

  2. Serve with brown gravy that has boiled mushrooms mixed in.

  3. Garnish with fried balls.

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. Shallot + mushroomtop 4% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,982 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2,4-decadienal (seaweed).

  2. Pepper + mushroomtop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together13,580 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).

  3. Shallot + peppertop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together5,898 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2,4-decadienal (seaweed).

  4. Veal + mushroomtop 14% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,446 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2,4-nonadienal (fatty, green).

  5. Veal + peppertop 19% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together10,049 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).

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 holds the filling and cooks tender when rolled and baked.
Fat bacon
Adds fat that bastes the veal from inside, keeping the rolls moist and adding savoury flavour.
Forcemeat
Provides a seasoned stuffing layer that stays moist and binds the filling inside the roll.
Egg
Coats the rolls so they brown evenly and develop a light golden surface in the oven.
Mushrooms (pickled or fresh)
Adds earthy flavour and texture to the gravy served alongside the olives.

The step that matters

Rolling and fastening the slices. Rolling tightly and securing with skewers keeps the filling inside during baking. Loose rolls can open and let the forcemeat leak out, leaving the veal dry and uneven.

Swap the shallot

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (veal, pepper, egg, mushroom):

  1. Capsicumfits better
  2. Spinachfits about as well
  3. Asparagusfits about as well
  4. Shallotthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against veal, pepper, egg, mushroom. 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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