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Veal, Pressed

A pressed veal dish cooked slowly with vegetables and herbs, finished with a reduced glaze.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 8 ingredients
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Why it works: Parsley and thyme match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 9,057 recipes. Both carry cuminaldehyde, which smells Spicy, cumin. The science ↓

Veal, Pressed

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the veal

  1. Remove all bones and tendons from the veal and trim it neatly.

  2. Season the veal liberally, roll it up lightly, and bind securely with kitchen twine.

Braise

  1. In a stewpan just large enough for the meat, add the bones, trimmings, prepared vegetables, bouquet garni, peppercorns, and a good amount of salt.

  2. Place the rolled veal on top.

  3. Add stock or water to cover the vegetables but not touch the meat.

  4. Cover the pot with greased paper, then fit a close lid.

  5. Cook gently for 3 hours, basting frequently.

Press and glaze

  1. Place the meat between two heavy dishes and let it cool.

  2. Strain the stock.

  3. Boil the stock rapidly the next day until reduced to a glaze.

  4. Trim the meat to a good shape and brush it with the glaze.

  5. Serve as a luncheon or breakfast dish.

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. Parsley + thymetop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together9,057 recipes

    Shared aroma: cuminaldehyde (Spicy, cumin).

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

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

  3. Carrot + celerytop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together10,173 recipes

    Shared aroma: myristicin (spice, warm).

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

    Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).

  5. Celery + parsleytop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together6,810 recipes

    Shared aroma: 4'-methylacetophenone (bitter almond).

Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs

What each ingredient does

Veal breast
Provides the main meat that becomes tender during slow cooking and then sets firm when pressed.
Bones and gelatin-rich stock (in the method)
Release collagen that dissolves into the liquid, giving the stock body that sets into a glaze.
Onion
Adds aromatic sweetness and depth to the stock as it simmers.

The step that matters

Cook gently and keep the liquid from boiling. Rapid boiling toughens the meat's proteins and can cloud the stock, while gentle simmering slowly converts collagen to gelatin, keeping the veal tender and the stock clear enough to set.

Swap the onion

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (veal, carrot, turnip, celery, parsley, thyme):

  1. Parsnipfits better
  2. Leekfits better
  3. Shallotfits better
  4. Onionthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against veal, carrot, turnip, celery, parsley, thyme. 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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