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Breast of Veal Farcie

A veal breast stuffed with kidney, sausage, shallots, parsley, and egg yolks, baked in bacon and stock.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 12 ingredients
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Why it works: Shallot and parsley match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 3,737 recipes. Both carry 2,4-decadienal, which smells seaweed. The science ↓

Breast of Veal Farcie

Ingredients

Directions

The book gives no oven temperature. The 350°F (175°C) in the steps was added when the recipe was transcribed, as a starting point.

Prepare the veal

  1. Preheat the oven to 350°F (175°C).

  2. Bone the veal and remove the gristle, then flatten the meat with a rolling pin.

  3. Prepare the filling by mixing the chopped kidney, sausage meat, shallots, salt, pepper, parsley, and boiled egg yolks.

  4. Spread the filling over the veal.

  5. Roll the veal tightly.

  6. Sew the roll closed.

  7. Secure the roll with skewers.

Braise and finish the sauce

  1. Place slices of bacon in a stewpan, add the rolled veal, and pour in the stock.

  2. Season with salt, pepper, and sweet herbs.

  3. Cook until the veal is done, then remove the skewers.

  4. Skim the sauce.

  5. Strain the sauce.

  6. Add flour to the sauce.

  7. Reduce the sauce.

  8. Serve the sauce around the veal.

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. Shallot + parsleytop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together3,737 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2,4-decadienal (seaweed).

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

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

  3. Shallot + flourtop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together2,081 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  4. Shallot + peppertop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together5,898 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2,4-decadienal (seaweed).

  5. Parsley + flourtop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together16,675 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

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

What each ingredient does

Veal breast
Forms the outer roll that holds the filling and becomes tender during slow cooking.
Sausage meat
Adds fat and richness, keeping the filling moist as it cooks.
Boiled egg yolks
Bind the chopped filling and give it a smooth, firm texture.
Stock
Provides the liquid that cooks the veal and forms the base of the sauce.
Flour
Thickens the strained sauce to give it body.

The step that matters

Sew and secure the roll tightly. A loose or poorly closed roll can let filling escape and cook unevenly. Tight rolling keeps the filling enclosed and the meat compact so it cooks evenly.

Swap the shallot

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

  1. Shallotthe original
  2. Carrotfits about as well
  3. Spinachfits less well
  4. Leekfits less well

Fit is the average pairing score against veal, meat, pepper, parsley, egg, flour. 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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