Skip to main content
Main

Veal Ringlets

Veal Ringlets are steamed veal cups filled with minced veal, breadcrumbs, ham, and seasonings, served with white sauce.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 12 ingredients
Jump to recipe ↓

Why it works: Nutmeg and mace are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 4% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 6,557 recipes. Both carry myristicin, which smells spice, warm. The science ↓

Veal Ringlets

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the mixture

  1. In a bowl, combine minced veal, breadcrumbs, and ham.

  2. Season with white pepper, coarse sea salt, and nutmeg.

  3. Moisten the mixture with stock and add the egg.

Fill and steam

  1. Butter 4 or 5 teacups and line them with strips of French beans and ham.

  2. Fill the cups with the veal mixture and cover with buttered paper.

  3. Steam for 30 minutes.

Serve

  1. Serve with a white sauce flavored with mace and lemon.

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. Nutmeg + macetop 4% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together6,557 recipes

    Shared aroma: myristicin (spice, warm).

  2. Nutmeg + beanstop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together267 recipes

    Shared aroma: linalool (floral, citrus).

  3. White pepper + macetop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,695 recipes

    Shared aroma: myrcene (balsamic, herbaceous).

  4. White pepper + nutmegtop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together1,375 recipes

    Shared aroma: eucalyptol (eucalyptus, herbal).

  5. Veal + hamtop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together3,264 recipes

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

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

What each ingredient does

Cooked veal
Forms the main body of the ringlets and gives them their meaty flavor.
Breadcrumbs
Absorb moisture and help the mixture hold together with a tender texture.
Egg
Binds the mixture so it sets firm when steamed.
Stock
Moistens the mixture so it stays juicy during steaming.
Ham
Adds savory, salty flavor to the filling and lining.

The step that matters

Moisten the mixture with stock and add the egg. The veal and breadcrumbs need enough liquid to stay moist, but too much loosens the mixture so it may not set firmly. The egg provides binding that holds the cooked ringlets together when steamed.

Swap the beans

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (veal, ham, egg, white pepper, nutmeg, sauce, mace):

  1. Walnutfits better
  2. Chestnutfits better
  3. Pistachiofits about as well
  4. Beansthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against veal, ham, egg, white pepper, nutmeg, sauce, mace. 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.

You might also like

Lemon SauceLemon Sauce236 recipesVeal PattiesVeal Patties50 recipesGerman Style String BeansGerman Style String Beans7 recipesBeef, Mutton, or Veal BrothBeef, Mutton, or Veal Broth6 recipes