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Fricandeau of Veal

A braised veal dish with bacon, carrots, turnips, onions, mushrooms, bay leaves, parsley, and butter.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 9 ingredients
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Why it works: Carrot and parsley match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 8,053 recipes. Both carry 2,4-decadienal, which smells seaweed. The science ↓

Fricandeau of Veal

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the veal

  1. Cut open the veal fillet and lay it flat.

  2. Lard the veal with strips of fat bacon using a larding needle.

Braise

  1. In a large stewpan, melt the butter over medium heat. Add the sliced carrots, turnips, onions, and soaked mushrooms to the pan.

  2. Add the bay leaves and bouquet of parsley.

  3. Place the larded veal on top of the vegetables and cover.

  4. Cook gently until the veal is done, adding stock if necessary.

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. Carrot + parsleytop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together8,053 recipes

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

  2. Carrot + turniptop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together8,002 recipes

    Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).

  3. Turnip + parsleytop 2% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together2,842 recipes

    Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).

  4. Turnip + oniontop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together7,585 recipes

    Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).

  5. Carrot + oniontop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together21,601 recipes

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

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 dish, becoming tender as it cooks slowly in liquid.
Fat bacon
Strips of fat threaded through the lean veal to add moisture and richness during braising.
Butter
Fat that starts the cooking of the vegetables and adds richness to the braise.
Onions
Break down during gentle cooking to add sweetness and body to the braising liquid.
Carrots
Release natural sweetness and flavour into the braise as they soften.

The step that matters

Cook gently until the veal is done. Low, gentle heat lets the connective tissue in the veal break down slowly, giving tenderness without drying the meat. High heat toughens the muscle fibres and can scorch the vegetables. Adding stock when the liquid runs low keeps the veal moist.

Swap the turnip

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (veal, carrot, onion, mushroom, vinegar, parsley, butter):

  1. Shallotfits better
  2. Potatofits about as well
  3. Leekfits about as well
  4. Turnipthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against veal, carrot, onion, mushroom, vinegar, parsley, 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.

More braised veal recipes

Neck 27Fillet 11Breast 10Cutlets 4Neck with Oyster Sauce 3Shoulder 3 See all 22 →

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