Why it works: Flour and butter are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 12% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 124,287 recipes. Both carry isobutyraldehyde, which smells malty, green. The science ↓
Roast Veal
Ingredients
Directions
Prepare
Wipe the veal and dredge it with coarse sea salt, black pepper, and flour.
Place the veal in a pan and pour ½ cup of water in the bottom.
Roast
Roast the veal for 20 to 30 minutes per pound.
Baste every 20 minutes with warm water mixed with melted butter.
Use the liquid in the pan for basting as needed.
Make the gravy
Make gravy using the liquid from the pan.
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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Flour + buttertop 12% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together124,287 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
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Pepper + flourtop 19% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together50,459 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
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Veal + peppertop 19% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together10,049 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).
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Pepper + buttertop 21% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together85,593 recipes
Shared aroma: trans-2-nonenal (cardboard, fatty).
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Veal + buttertop 23% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together9,381 recipes
Shared aroma: 3-hexenal (apple, fruity).
Flour and butter barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 124,287 recipes: they work on texture and structure more than aroma.
Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs
What each ingredient does
- Veal
- The main cut, which becomes tender and juicy as it roasts slowly in the pan.
- Flour
- Helps the surface brown and later thickens the pan liquid into gravy.
- Butter
- Adds fat for richer flavor and helps the surface brown during basting.
The step that matters
Basting every 20 minutes. Regular basting with warm liquid keeps the surface from drying out and builds browning. Skipping it or letting the pan run dry can leave the outside dry and the gravy base thin.
“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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