Skip to main content
Main

Fricandeau

A veal roll with crackers, eggs, butter, and cream, baked slowly.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 8 ingredients
Jump to recipe ↓

Why it works: Pepper and nutmeg match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 7% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 13,015 recipes. Both carry 4'-methylacetophenone, which smells bitter almond. The science ↓

Fricandeau

Ingredients

Directions

The book gives no oven temperature. The 300°F (150°C) in the steps was added when the recipe was transcribed, as a starting point.

Prepare the mixture

  1. Preheat the oven to 300°F (150°C).

  2. In a bowl, combine the chopped veal, salt, pepper, nutmeg, rolled crackers, and eggs.

  3. If the veal is thin, add butter and cream.

Shape and bake

  1. Form the mixture into a large roll and dot the top with bits of butter.

  2. Sprinkle pounded crackers over the roll, mixing a little with the meat.

  3. Place the roll in the oven and add a little water occasionally.

  4. Cook slowly for 2 hours.

Serve

  1. Once cooled, slice thinly and serve as a relish.

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. Pepper + nutmegtop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together13,015 recipes

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

  2. Butter + creamtop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together41,516 recipes

    Shared aroma: delta-dodecalactone (sweet, creamy).

  3. Nutmeg + creamtop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together7,920 recipes

    Shared aroma: acetic acid (sour, vinegar).

  4. Nutmeg + buttertop 16% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together24,377 recipes

    Shared aroma: eucalyptol (eucalyptus, herbal).

  5. Egg + buttertop 17% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together118,967 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

Roast veal
Provides the meat that forms the body of the roll once cooked and sliced.
Eggs
Bind the chopped meat and crackers together so the roll holds its shape.
Rolled crackers
Absorb moisture and help bind the meat into a firm, sliceable loaf.
Butter
Adds fat and richness, keeping the thin veal moist during slow baking.

The step that matters

Slow baking with occasional water. Cooking slowly at a moderate oven heat keeps the lean veal tender and prevents it from drying out or toughening. Adding water now and then supplies moisture so the surface does not dry.

Swap the nutmeg

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

  1. Nutmegthe original
  2. Parsleyfits about as well
  3. Tarragonfits less well
  4. Sagefits less well

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

You might also like

Veal PattiesVeal Patties50 recipesBeef, Mutton, or Veal BrothBeef, Mutton, or Veal Broth6 recipesTomato SoupTomato Soup526 recipesBrown BreadBrown Bread461 recipes