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Ox-cheek, Stuffed

A roasted ox cheek stuffed with veal forcemeat, coated in egg and breadcrumbs, served with a brown roux sauce.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 14 ingredients
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Why it works: Carrot and parsley match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 8,053 recipes. Both carry 2,4-decadienal, which smells seaweed. The science ↓

Ox-cheek, Stuffed

Oven, in the book's wordsA moderate oven

Ingredients

Directions

The book says “a moderate oven”. The 350°F in the steps is the modern equivalent, not the book's own figure.

Braise the cheek

  1. Prepare and cook the ox-cheek as directed in the recipe for 'Ox-cheek, Stewed.'

  2. Once the bones can be easily separated from the meat, remove the cheek from the pot.

  3. Remove the bones, flatten the cheek on a surface, and season well with salt and pepper.

Stuff and bake

  1. Spread the forcemeat over the cheek, roll it up tightly, and bind securely with string.

  2. Coat the rolled cheek thickly with beaten egg and browned breadcrumbs.

  3. Bake in a moderate oven (350°F / 175°C) for 1.5 hours, basting frequently with hot fat.

Make the sauce and serve

  1. In a pan, fry the butter and flour together until a brown roux forms.

  2. Strain 1 pint of the boiling pot liquid onto the roux, stir until boiling, and simmer for about 30 minutes.

  3. Season to taste and strain into a sauceboat before serving.

  4. Garnish with small rolls of fried bacon and slices of lemon if desired.

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. Carrot + parsleytop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together8,053 recipes

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

  2. Carrot + celerytop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together10,173 recipes

    Shared aroma: myristicin (spice, warm).

  3. Carrot + turniptop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together8,002 recipes

    Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).

  4. Celery + parsleytop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together6,810 recipes

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

  5. Turnip + celerytop 2% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together4,418 recipes

    Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).

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

What each ingredient does

Butter
Fat that cooks with the flour to form a roux, enriching and thickening the sauce.
Flour
Thickens the sauce when cooked with butter into a brown roux.
Egg
Binds the breadcrumb coating so it adheres to the rolled cheek.
Browned breadcrumbs
Form a crisp, browned crust on the outside of the rolled cheek.
Veal forcemeat
Fills the rolled cheek, adding moisture and richness to the meat.

The step that matters

Cooking the roux. Cooking butter and flour until brown develops flavour and colour, but scorching gives a bitter taste. Stir steadily and watch closely, since the roux must thicken the liquid smoothly once it is added.

Swap the onion

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (veal, butter, flour, carrot, turnip, celery, parsley):

  1. Parsnipfits better
  2. Leekfits better
  3. Shallotfits better
  4. Onionthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against veal, butter, flour, carrot, turnip, celery, parsley. 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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