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Veal, Fillet of

Roasted veal fillet served with melted butter, boiled ham, bacon, pickled pork, lemon, and gravy.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 6 ingredients
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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 ↓

Veal, Fillet of

Ingredients

Directions

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

Prepare

  1. Remove the bone from the veal fillet and lift the skin.

  2. Place veal forcemeat under the flap and reserve some for later.

  3. Skewer the veal into a round shape and dredge with flour.

Roast

  1. Bake in a hot oven at 400°F initially, then reduce heat to 350°F, basting continually.

  2. About 30 minutes before serving, move the veal closer to the heat for browning.

Serve

  1. Serve with melted butter, boiled ham, bacon, or pickled pork, along with a cut lemon and gravy.

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. Flour + buttertop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together124,287 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  2. Butter + lemontop 16% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together41,227 recipes

    Shared aroma: 3-hexenal (apple, fruity).

  3. Veal + lemontop 17% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together4,580 recipes

    Shared aroma: 3-hexenal (apple, fruity).

  4. Flour + lemontop 17% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together30,404 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  5. Veal + buttertop 23% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked 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 fillet
Forms the main body of the roast, cooking into tender, juicy meat.
Veal forcemeat
Stuffing that adds moisture and savoury flavour inside the roast as it cooks.
Flour
Dredged onto the surface to help form a dry coating that browns during roasting.
Melted butter
Adds richness and fat to the serving, complementing the lean veal.
Gravy
Adds moisture and savoury depth to the sliced roast at serving.

The step that matters

Basting and moving the veal for browning. Frequent basting keeps the surface moist so the lean veal does not dry out, while moving it closer to the heat late in cooking drives browning. Timing matters: too early and the surface can scorch, too late and it will not brown.

Swap the lemon

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

  1. Raisinfits about as well
  2. Lemonthe original
  3. Coconutfits less well
  4. Peachfits less well

Fit is the average pairing score against veal, flour, 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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