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Larded Fricandeau of Veal

A veal fillet larded with ham and bacon, braised with calf's feet, carrots, onions, and vinegar, finished with a burnt sugar gravy.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 12 ingredients
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Why it works: Carrot and onion are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 6% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 21,601 recipes. Both carry 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine, which smells earthy, pea. The science ↓

Larded Fricandeau of Veal

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the veal

  1. Skin the veal fillet and beat it.

  2. Lard the veal alternately with slices of ham and bacon.

Braise

  1. Line a stewpan with bacon, carrot, and onion. Add the cut-up calf's feet and whole peppercorns.

  2. Place the veal in the stewpan.

  3. Pour in the broth and vinegar, then dust with salt.

  4. Lay slices of lemon on top, cover the pan, and cook slowly for 3 hours, basting occasionally. Ensure the meat does not boil to prevent hardening.

  5. Once cooked, drain the meat and let it cool.

Make the gravy

  1. Color the cooking liquid with burnt sugar and boil until reduced to 1 pint.

  2. Strain the gravy through a fine sieve and skim off the fat.

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

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

  2. Carrot + lemontop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together3,351 recipes

    Shared aroma: trans-2-nonenal (cardboard, fatty).

  3. Onion + vinegartop 14% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together18,226 recipes

    Shared aroma: acetic acid (sour, vinegar).

  4. Veal + carrottop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together3,015 recipes

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

  5. Vinegar + sugartop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together20,806 recipes

    Shared aroma: beta-damascenone (apple, rose).

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 dish, becoming tender through slow, moist cooking.
Calf's feet
Release gelatin into the liquid, giving the gravy body and a glossy texture.
Bacon
Adds fat and savory flavor that slowly melts into the meat during cooking.
Broth
Forms the cooking liquid that keeps the veal moist and builds the gravy.
Vinegar
Adds acidity that brightens the flavor of the reduced gravy.

The step that matters

Keep the liquid at a gentle simmer. If the liquid boils, the proteins in the meat tighten and toughen, leaving the veal hard and dry rather than tender.

Swap the lemon

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (veal, ham, carrot, onion, vinegar, sugar):

  1. Lemonthe original
  2. Cherryfits about as well
  3. Applefits about as well
  4. Orangefits about as well

Fit is the average pairing score against veal, ham, carrot, onion, vinegar, sugar. 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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