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Another Way to Make a Fricandeau of Veal

A veal and kidney fat meatball dish seasoned with lemon, anchovy, and spices, fried and stewed in gravy.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 11 ingredients
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Why it works: Lemon and biscuit match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 12% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 697 recipes. Both carry nonanal, which smells fat, citrus. The science ↓

Another Way to Make a Fricandeau of Veal

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the mixture

  1. Chop the veal and kidney fat very finely.

  2. Season with white pepper, salt, grated lemon peel, lemon juice, and anchovy.

  3. Soak the rusks in boiling milk, then mix with the meat mixture.

Shape and cook

  1. Form into balls and coat lightly with flour.

  2. Fry the balls in butter until light brown.

  3. Stew the fried balls in highly-seasoned gravy.

Serve

  1. Carefully dish the balls and strain the gravy over them.

  2. Garnish with cut 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. Lemon + biscuittop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together697 recipes

    Shared aroma: nonanal (fat, citrus).

  2. Anchovy + buttertop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together3,697 recipes

    Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).

  3. Veal + anchovytop 14% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together456 recipes

    Shared aroma: hexanol (green, fruity).

  4. Anchovy + biscuittop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together60 recipes

    Shared aroma: nonanal (fat, citrus).

  5. Lemon + anchovytop 16% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,080 recipes

    Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).

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

What each ingredient does

Lean loin of veal
Forms the main body of the balls, giving them a meaty texture.
Kidney fat
Adds richness and moisture so the minced balls stay juicy when cooked.
Rusks or biscuits
Soaked in milk, they absorb liquid and help bind the mixture and keep it tender.
Butter
Browns the outside of the balls during frying, adding colour and a nutty flavour.

The step that matters

Fry the balls in butter until light brown. Frying gives the outside a browned crust and flavour, while the balls must be cooked through gently so the meat stays tender and does not dry out.

Swap the white pepper

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

  1. Capersfits better
  2. Parsleyfits better
  3. Thymefits better
  4. White pepperthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against veal, lemon, anchovy, biscuit, 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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