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Baked Veal En Casserole

A baked veal steak topped with a breadcrumb and onion mixture, cooked in a casserole.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 8 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 ↓

Baked Veal En Casserole

Oven, in the book's wordsA hot oven

Ingredients

Directions

The book says “a hot oven”. The 400°F (200°C) in the steps is the modern equivalent, not the book's own figure.

Prepare

  1. Preheat the oven to 400°F (200°C).

  2. Lay the veal steak in a heated, buttered casserole.

  3. Add the seasoned stock or hot water.

  4. In a bowl, mix the bread crumbs, chopped onion, beaten egg, melted butter, salt, and pepper.

  5. Spread the dressing over the steak.

Bake and serve

  1. Cover and cook for 30 minutes.

  2. Uncover and brown for an additional 10 minutes.

  3. Serve with sour jelly or spiced gooseberries.

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. Onion + peppertop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together68,474 recipes

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

  3. Bread + eggtop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together22,662 recipes

    Shared aroma: (e)-2-octenal (fatty, green).

  4. Onion + buttertop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together42,912 recipes

    Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).

  5. Bread + oniontop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together8,676 recipes

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

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

What each ingredient does

Veal steak
Forms the main body of the dish and becomes tender during the covered cooking.
Bread crumbs
Form the dressing that soaks up cooking liquid and holds the topping together.
Beaten egg
Binds the bread crumb dressing so it holds its shape while baking.
Onion
Adds savory flavor to the dressing as it cooks.
Melted butter
Adds fat that carries flavor and helps the top brown.

The step that matters

Uncover and brown for an additional 10 minutes. Covered cooking keeps the top pale and moist, so the dressing only browns once the lid is off. Leaving it covered too long gives a soft, unbrowned top.

Swap the onion

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

  1. Capsicumfits better
  2. Asparagusfits better
  3. Leekfits better
  4. Onionthe original

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