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Roast Veal

A veal roast with a dressing, baked and served with a gravy thickened with browned flour.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 13 ingredients
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Why it works: Thyme and parsley match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 9,057 recipes. Both carry cuminaldehyde, which smells Spicy, cumin. The science ↓

Roast Veal

Oven, in the book's wordsA moderate oven

Ingredients

Directions

The book says “a moderate oven”. The 350°F (175°C) in the steps is the modern equivalent, not the book's own figure.

Prepare

  1. Make an incision in the flap of the veal and fill it with dressing.

  2. Secure the flap with small skewers and dredge the veal with flour and a little salt.

Roast and baste

  1. Bake in a moderate oven at 350°F (175°C), basting often.

  2. Initially baste with a little salt and water, then with the drippings from the pan.

Make the gravy

  1. When done, skim the gravy and thicken it with browned flour.

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. Thyme + parsleytop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together9,057 recipes

    Shared aroma: cuminaldehyde (Spicy, cumin).

  2. Parsley + peppertop 2% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together34,122 recipes

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

  3. Thyme + peppertop 4% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together11,585 recipes

    Shared aroma: beta-phellandrene (minty, terpene).

  4. Bread + buttertop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together27,232 recipes

    Shared aroma: delta-decalactone (sweet, creamy).

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

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

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 loin
Forms the main roast, cooked slowly so the meat stays moist and tender.
Bread crumbs
Bulk up the dressing and absorb the egg and butter to hold its shape.
Egg
Binds the bread crumb dressing so it holds together inside the roast.
Flour
Dredged on the surface and browned for thickening the gravy.
Butter
Adds fat and richness to the dressing and gives flavor.

The step that matters

Basting during roasting. Regular basting with salted water and then pan drippings keeps the surface moist and encourages even browning, while the meat cooks. Skimming fat before thickening keeps the gravy from tasting greasy.

Swap the thyme

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

  1. Nutmegfits about as well
  2. Capersfits about as well
  3. Marjoramfits about as well
  4. Thymethe original

Fit is the average pairing score against veal, flour, bread, parsley, pepper, egg, 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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