Why it works: Flour and butter 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 ↓
Veal, Fillet Of, Roast
Ingredients
Directions
Prepare
Procure a small fillet of veal, about 6 pounds.
Stuff the fillet with the stuffing.
Dredge the fillet with flour.
Roast and serve
Place it away from the fire and roast, basting continually for about 2 hours.
Serve with melted butter sauce poured over it, garnished with lemon slices and brown sauce.
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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Flour + buttertop 12% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together124,287 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
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Butter + saucetop 15% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together15,338 recipes
Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).
-
Butter + lemontop 16% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together41,227 recipes
Shared aroma: 3-hexenal (apple, fruity).
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Veal + lemontop 17% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together4,580 recipes
Shared aroma: 3-hexenal (apple, fruity).
-
Flour + lemontop 17% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together30,404 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
- Fillet of veal
- Forms the main body of the dish and is the meat that gets roasted and served.
- Flour
- Dredging coats the surface, helping it brown during roasting.
- Melted butter sauce
- Adds richness and moisture when poured over the roasted veal at serving.
The step that matters
Basting continually during roasting. Regular basting keeps the surface moist and helps the floured coating brown evenly, so the lean veal does not dry out over about 2 hours in the oven.
Swap the lemon
How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (veal, flour, butter, sauce):
- Raisinfits better
- Lemonthe original
- Coconutfits about as well
- Avocadofits less well
Fit is the average pairing score against veal, flour, butter, sauce. 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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