Why it works: Shallot and parsley match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 3,737 recipes. Both carry 2,4-decadienal, which smells seaweed. The science ↓
Breast of Veal Farcie
Ingredients
Directions
Prepare the veal
Bone the veal and remove the gristle.
Flatten the meat with a rolling pin.
Mix the kidney, sausage meat, shallots, salt, pepper, parsley, and egg yolks together.
Spread the mixture on the veal, roll it up tightly, and sew it closed.
Cook and serve
Skewer the rolled veal and place it in a stewpan on slices of bacon.
Add stock, salt, pepper, and sweet herbs.
Cook until the veal is done, then remove the skewers.
Skim the sauce, strain it, add flour, and reduce the sauce.
Serve the sauce around the veal.
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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Shallot + parsleytop 1% of all pairsSmell alikestrongCooked together3,737 recipes
Shared aroma: 2,4-decadienal (seaweed).
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Pepper + parsleytop 2% of all pairsSmell alikestrongCooked together34,122 recipes
Shared aroma: 4'-methylacetophenone (bitter almond).
-
Shallot + flourtop 6% of all pairsSmell alikestrongCooked together2,081 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
-
Shallot + peppertop 11% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together5,898 recipes
Shared aroma: 2,4-decadienal (seaweed).
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Parsley + flourtop 12% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together16,675 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs
What each ingredient does
- Veal breast
- Forms the outer wrap that holds the stuffing and cooks into tender slices.
- Sausage meat
- Adds fat and savory body, keeping the stuffing moist during cooking.
- Egg yolks
- Bind the stuffing together so it holds its shape when sliced.
- Flour
- Thickens the strained stock into a sauce.
- Stock
- Forms the liquid base of the sauce and keeps the veal moist while it cooks.
The step that matters
Roll and sew the veal tightly. If the roll is loose, the stuffing can shift or fall out during cooking and the slices will not hold together. Tight rolling and secure sewing keep the filling in place while the meat cooks evenly.
Swap the shallot
How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (veal, meat, pepper, parsley, egg, flour):
- Shallotthe original
- Carrotfits about as well
- Spinachfits less well
- Leekfits less well
Fit is the average pairing score against veal, meat, pepper, parsley, egg, flour. 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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