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Veal, Breast Of, Roasted

Roasted veal breast served with melted butter, lemon, and boiled bacon.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 7 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, Breast Of, Roasted

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. If using sweetbread, skewer it to the back of the veal.

  2. Cover the joint with caul or buttered paper.

Roast

  1. Place it over a moderate fire and baste liberally until cooked.

  2. After about 1.5 hours, remove the covering, flour the joint, and let it brown.

Serve

  1. Serve on a hot dish with melted butter poured over it.

  2. Garnish with a cut lemon.

  3. Serve boiled bacon alongside.

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

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

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

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

  4. Flour + lemontop 17% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together30,404 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  5. Veal + buttertop 23% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together9,381 recipes

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

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 breast
Forms the main body of the dish, cooked slowly until tender through roasting and basting.
Flour
Dusted on the joint so it browns and forms a golden crust in the final stage.
Melted butter
Basting fat that keeps the meat moist and adds richness to the finished joint.
Sweetbread
Optional addition skewered alongside the veal, adding a tender, rich texture.

The step that matters

Remove the covering and flour the joint before browning. Removing the paper or caul lets the surface dry and heat directly, while flour and fat help the exterior brown rather than steam. Leaving the cover on too long leaves the joint pale.

Swap the lemon

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

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

Fit is the average pairing score against veal, flour, butter. 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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