Why it works: Milk and bread are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 11% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 11,466 recipes. Both carry 2-undecenal, which smells sweet. The science ↓
Pieds Dff Veau En Fricassee
Ingredients
Directions
Prepare and simmer
Soak the calf's feet in cold water for 6 hours.
Simmer the feet in milk and water until the meat can be easily removed from the bones.
Coat and fry
Sprinkle the meat with bread crumbs, pepper, and salt, then dip in egg yolk.
Fry until golden brown and serve with fricassee sauce.
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.
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Milk + breadtop 11% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together11,466 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-undecenal (sweet).
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Bread + eggtop 13% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together22,662 recipes
Shared aroma: (e)-2-octenal (fatty, green).
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Bread + peppertop 16% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together20,964 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).
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Milk + eggtop 18% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together88,785 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).
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Milk + peppertop 22% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together26,984 recipes
Shared aroma: ethyl 2-methylbutyrate (fruity, apple).
Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs
What each ingredient does
- Calf's feet
- Provide the meat and collagen that softens into gelatin, giving the dish its body and tender texture.
- Milk
- Adds richness and a gentle, mellow flavour to the simmering liquid.
- Bread crumbs
- Form a crisp coating that browns during frying.
- Egg yolk
- Binds the crumbs to the meat and helps the coating brown evenly.
The step that matters
Simmer until the meat releases from the bones. Gentle simmering lets collagen in the feet break down into gelatin, so the meat becomes tender and loosens. Overcooking can make it fall apart, while undercooking leaves it tough and clinging to the bone.
“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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