Why it works: Butter and flour 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
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 the veal
Rub the veal with sugar, salt, and pepper, using half as much sugar as salt.
Place the veal on a rack in a roasting pan.
Roast and baste
Cook in a hot oven at 400°F (200°C) until nicely browned.
Make a thin gravy by melting butter, adding flour, and whisking in stock or water.
Season the gravy with pepper and salt.
Baste the veal with the gravy every 15 minutes.
Cook for 2.5 hours.
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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Butter + flourtop 12% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together124,287 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
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Sugar + flourtop 15% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together92,116 recipes
Shared aroma: phenylacetaldehyde (hawthorne, honey).
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Sugar + buttertop 17% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together98,233 recipes
Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).
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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).
Butter and flour 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
- Provides the main body of the roast, which cooks through and browns on the outside.
- Sugar
- Adds sweetness and helps the surface brown during roasting.
- Flour
- Thickens the butter and stock into a gravy.
- Butter
- Provides fat for the gravy, carrying flavour and smoothing its texture.
- Stock or water
- Forms the liquid base of the gravy.
The step that matters
Baste the veal with the gravy every 15 minutes. Regular basting keeps the surface moist and helps it brown evenly, since the outer layer dries out and browns faster than the centre as the roast cooks over a long time.
“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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