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Scallops of Cold Veal

A dish of minced cold roast veal seasoned with nutmeg, pepper, salt, and cream, baked in scallop shells with breadcrumbs and butter.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 7 ingredients
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Why it works: Bread and butter are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 7% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 27,232 recipes. Both carry delta-decalactone, which smells sweet, creamy. The science ↓

Scallops of Cold Veal

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the filling

  1. Mince the cold roast veal extremely small.

  2. In a pan, combine the minced veal with a scrape of nutmeg, a little black pepper, coarse sea salt, and a little cream. Heat gently for a few minutes.

Assemble and brown

  1. Place the mixture into scallop shells.

  2. Cover with bread crumbs and dot with bits of butter. Brown under the broiler or before the fire until golden.

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. Bread + buttertop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together27,232 recipes

    Shared aroma: delta-decalactone (sweet, creamy).

  2. Nutmeg + peppertop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together13,015 recipes

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

  3. Cream + buttertop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together41,516 recipes

    Shared aroma: delta-dodecalactone (sweet, creamy).

  4. Nutmeg + creamtop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together7,920 recipes

    Shared aroma: acetic acid (sour, vinegar).

  5. Nutmeg + breadtop 14% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together5,997 recipes

    Shared aroma: eucalyptol (eucalyptus, herbal).

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

What each ingredient does

Cold roast veal
Provides the cooked meat that forms the body of the filling.
Cream
Adds moisture and richness so the minced veal stays tender when heated.
Bread crumbs
Form a crisp, golden top layer when browned.
Butter
Adds fat that enriches flavor and helps the crumb topping brown.

The step that matters

Brown under the broiler or before the fire until golden. The crumb topping browns quickly under high direct heat, and it can burn before the filling warms through. Watching for an even golden color without scorching matters.

Swap the nutmeg

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (veal, pepper, cream, bread, butter):

  1. Nutmegthe original
  2. Parsleyfits about as well
  3. Sagefits about as well
  4. Celeryfits less well

Fit is the average pairing score against veal, pepper, cream, bread, butter. 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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