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Fricandeau of Veal

A veal fricandeau simmered with bacon, carrot, onion, broth, and seasoned, served with gravy and garnished with mushrooms, sorrel, cock’s-combs, and quenelles.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 12 ingredients
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Why it works: Carrot and pepper match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 6% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 14,555 recipes. Both carry 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine, which smells earthy, pea. The science ↓

Fricandeau of Veal

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the veal

  1. Trim the veal neatly.

  2. Lard the outside of the veal with bacon strips.

  3. Place the veal in a glazing pan with meat trimmings, carrot, onion, pepper, and salt.

Braise and glaze

  1. Add ½ pint of broth.

  2. Boil until the broth thickens and turns yellowish.

  3. Add 1½ pint more broth.

  4. Simmer for 75 minutes, covering the stewpan halfway.

  5. Close the stewpan.

  6. Place hot coals on the cover.

  7. Baste the fricandeau with gravy every 4 minutes until it glazes.

Serve

  1. Remove the fricandeau and place it on a serving dish.

  2. Pour gravy around the fricandeau.

  3. Garnish with mushrooms, sorrel, white cock’s-combs, and decorated quenelles.

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 + peppertop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together14,555 recipes

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

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

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

  3. Carrot + sorreltop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together235 recipes

    Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).

  4. Pepper + sorreltop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together419 recipes

    Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).

  5. Carrot + mushroomtop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,796 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).

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, becoming tender and moist during slow braising.
Bacon
Adds fat and savoury flavour that melts into the veal during cooking.
Broth
Provides the liquid for braising and, reduced, forms the glossy gravy used for basting.
Carrot
Adds sweetness and aromatic depth to the braising liquid and gravy.
Onion
Contributes savoury aroma and body to the braising liquid and gravy.

The step that matters

Basting until it glazes. Repeated basting with reduced gravy builds a glossy, browned surface as the liquid evaporates and its sugars and proteins caramelise. Stopping too early leaves the surface pale and dull.

Swap the sorrel

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

  1. Parsleyfits better
  2. Thymefits better
  3. Celeryfits better
  4. Sorrelthe original

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