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Veal Olives

Veal olives are small veal and bacon rolls coated in breadcrumbs, roasted on a spit.

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

Veal Olives

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the olives

  1. Cut very thin slices from a fillet of veal, free from the bone, creating long strips.

  2. Dip each slice in the yolk of an egg.

  3. Cut bacon into thin slices and lay it on the veal.

  4. Egg the bacon and add a little veal force-meat on top.

Roll and coat

  1. Roll it up tightly and sew with strong thread or twine, using only two or three stitches.

  2. Rub each olive with egg and roll it in seasoned bread crumbs.

Roast

  1. Place them on a spit and roast before a brisk fire for 45 minutes to 1 hour.

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. Egg + breadtop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together22,662 recipes

    Shared aroma: (e)-2-octenal (fatty, green).

  3. Bread + nutmegtop 14% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together5,997 recipes

    Shared aroma: eucalyptol (eucalyptus, herbal).

  4. Meat + breadtop 14% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,924 recipes

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

  5. Bread + peppertop 16% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together20,964 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).

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

What each ingredient does

Fillet of veal
Forms the main body of each olive and becomes tender and savoury when roasted.
Egg yolk
Binds the layers together and helps the bread crumbs adhere to the outside.
Bacon
Adds fat and savoury flavour that bastes the lean veal as it cooks.
Veal force-meat
Adds a soft, moist filling that keeps the rolled olives juicy inside.
Bread crumbs
Form a crisp, golden coating that browns during roasting.

The step that matters

Rolling and tying tightly. If the rolls are loose, the filling can spill out and the veal may cook unevenly. Firm rolling with secure stitches keeps the filling enclosed while the meat sets.

Swap the nutmeg

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

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

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