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Veal, Fillet Of, Roast

A 6‑pound veal fillet is stuffed, floured, roasted, and served with butter sauce, brown sauce, and lemon slices.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 6 ingredients
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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

  1. Procure a small fillet of veal, about 6 pounds.

  2. Stuff the fillet with stuffing.

  3. Dredge the fillet with flour.

Roast and serve

  1. Place it away from the fire and roast, basting continually for about 2 hours.

  2. Serve with melted butter sauce poured over it, garnished with lemon slices and brown sauce.

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. Flour + buttertop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together124,287 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  2. Butter + saucetop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together15,338 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

  3. Butter + lemontop 16% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together41,227 recipes

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

  4. Veal + lemontop 17% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together4,580 recipes

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

  5. Flour + lemontop 17% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked 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

Veal fillet
Forms the main body of the roast, cooking to tender slices with its own moisture.
Flour
Dusting on the surface helps the exterior brown and form a light crust.
Butter
Melted butter sauce adds richness and fat that complements the lean veal.

The step that matters

Basting continually while roasting. Regular basting keeps the surface from drying out while the lean meat cooks slowly, helping it stay moist and evenly browned over the roughly two hours in the oven.

Swap the lemon

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

  1. Raisinfits better
  2. Lemonthe original
  3. Coconutfits about as well
  4. 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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