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Breast of Veal Stewed White

A veal breast stew with sweetbread stuffing, fried balls, and a gravy of oysters, lemon, and butter.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 13 ingredients
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Why it works: Nutmeg and pepper match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 7% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 13,015 recipes. Both carry 4'-methylacetophenone, which smells bitter almond. The science ↓

Breast of Veal Stewed White

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the filling

  1. Cut a piece off each end of the veal breast.

  2. Boil the sweetbread, then chop it finely.

  3. In a bowl, mix the sweetbread, grated bread, beef suet, eggs, milk, nutmeg, salt, and pepper.

  4. Stuff the thin part of the veal breast with the mixture.

  5. Form the remaining part of the veal breast into small balls.

  6. Fry the balls until golden brown.

Cook and serve

  1. Skewer the skin of the veal breast closed.

  2. Dust the veal breast with flour.

  3. Boil the veal breast in a cloth with milk and water.

  4. For the gravy, use the cut-off ends of the veal, oysters, lemon juice, and butter rolled in flour.

  5. Once the veal is cooked, place it on a dish.

  6. Garnish with the fried balls.

  7. Pour the gravy over it.

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

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

  2. Beef + peppertop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together18,971 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).

  3. Bread + milktop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together11,466 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-undecenal (sweet).

  4. Veal + beeftop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together3,784 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2,6-nonadienal (cucumber, green).

  5. Beef + milktop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together3,759 recipes

    Shared aroma: 1-hexanal (fruit).

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

What each ingredient does

Veal breast
Forms the main body of the dish and is cooked gently until tender in the cloth.
Eggs
Bind the stuffing so it holds together when cooked.
Grated bread
Absorbs moisture and adds body to the stuffing and balls.
Beef suet
Adds fat that keeps the stuffing moist and rich during cooking.
Butter
Enriches the gravy and adds fat for a smooth, glossy texture when rolled in flour.
Flour
Thickens the gravy and helps the veal surface take on color.

The step that matters

Skewering the skin closed. If the stuffed skin is not sealed tightly, the filling can leak out during boiling, leaving the dish dry and the stuffing lost to the cooking liquid.

Swap the nutmeg

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (veal, bread, beef, egg, milk, pepper, oyster):

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

Fit is the average pairing score against veal, bread, beef, egg, milk, pepper, oyster. 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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