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To Pot Veal

A veal fillet simmered with mace, peppercorns, cloves, and water, then pounded and served with optional gravy or butter.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 8 ingredients
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Why it works: Mace and clove are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 6% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 8,400 recipes. Both carry methyleugenol, which smells clove, spice. The science ↓

To Pot Veal

Ingredients

Directions

The book gives no oven temperature. The 300°F (150°C) in the steps was added when the recipe was transcribed, as a starting point.

Prepare

  1. Season the veal fillet with mace, peppercorns, and cloves.

  2. Place the seasoned fillet in a potting pan that fits it snugly.

  3. Fill the pan with water.

Cook

  1. Bake at 300°F (150°C) for 3 hours.

Finish and serve

  1. Pound the cooked fillet in a mortar until small, then add salt to taste.

  2. Add a little gravy if eating soon, or melted butter if storing.

  3. Cover the mixture with butter before serving.

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. Mace + clovetop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together8,400 recipes

    Shared aroma: methyleugenol (clove, spice).

  2. Veal + macetop 18% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together3,761 recipes

    Shared aroma: alpha-pinene (pine, turpentine).

  3. Mace + buttertop 22% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together11,405 recipes

    Shared aroma: linalool (floral, citrus).

  4. Veal + buttertop 23% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together9,381 recipes

    Shared aroma: 3-hexenal (apple, fruity).

  5. Clove + buttertop 23% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together14,045 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl octanoate (fruity, wine).

Mace and butter barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 11,405 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 fillet
Forms the meat base that becomes tender through slow baking and is then pounded fine.
Mace
Adds a warm, aromatic flavour that soaks into the meat during seasoning.
Peppercorns
Contribute a sharp, aromatic bite that carries into the cooked meat.
Cloves
Add a strong, warm aroma that complements the meat's richness.
Butter
Adds fat and richness, and its covering helps keep the surface from drying.

The step that matters

Baking at 300°F with water in the pan. Low, gentle heat in a snug pan with water keeps the veal moist and tender. Too much heat or too little water lets the surface dry and toughen, so the cooked fillet will not pound to a smooth texture.

Swap the clove

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

  1. Nutmegfits better
  2. Sagefits about as well
  3. Parsleyfits about as well
  4. Clovethe original

Fit is the average pairing score against veal, mace, 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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