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Quenelles of Veal with Tomato Sauce

A veal quenelle dish served with a tomato sauce.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 11 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 ↓

Quenelles of Veal with Tomato Sauce

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the quenelle mixture

  1. Mince the veal and pound it in a mortar.

  2. Boil flour and water with butter to make a paste.

  3. Let the paste cool.

  4. Mix the paste with the veal and pound again.

  5. Pass the mixture through a fine sieve.

  6. Season with salt, pepper, and spices.

  7. Add enough egg yolk for consistency.

  8. Test consistency by poaching a small amount in boiling water.

Shape and poach

  1. Shape the mixture into quenelles using two tablespoons.

  2. Place the quenelles in a buttered flat stewpan.

  3. Add 2 teaspoons of salt to the spaces between the quenelles.

  4. Pour boiling water to cover the quenelles.

  5. Poach the quenelles for 10 minutes.

Make the tomato sauce

  1. Cut tomatoes.

  2. Place tomatoes in a stewpan with parsley and thyme.

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. Pepper + parsleytop 2% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together34,122 recipes

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

  3. Pepper + thymetop 4% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together11,585 recipes

    Shared aroma: beta-phellandrene (minty, terpene).

  4. Tomato + thymetop 4% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,370 recipes

    Shared aroma: 1-octen-3-one (mushroom, metallic).

  5. Pepper + tomatotop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together17,923 recipes

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

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

What each ingredient does

Veal
Provides the main protein that sets into a tender, firm quenelle when poached.
Flour
Cooked into a paste that gives the quenelle body and helps hold its shape.
Egg yolk
Binds the mixture so it holds together during poaching.
Butter
Adds richness and moisture to the paste and keeps the quenelles from sticking to the pan.
Tomatoes
Supply acidity and moisture for the sauce.

The step that matters

Testing the consistency before shaping. The mixture must be firm enough to hold its shape but not dense or rubbery. Poaching a small test piece in boiling water shows whether the egg yolk and paste amounts are right before the full batch is shaped and cooked.

Swap the tomato

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

  1. Shallotfits better
  2. Leekfits better
  3. Carrotfits better
  4. Tomatothe original

Fit is the average pairing score against veal, flour, butter, pepper, egg, 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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