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To Dress Cold Calf’s Head or Veal a LA Maitre D’hotel

A dressing for cold calf's head or veal made with butter, lemon juice, and veal gravy or mushroom catsup.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 4 ingredients
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Why it works: Veal and lemon are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 8% of all ingredient pairs, and 4,580 recipes mention both. Both carry 3-hexenal, which smells apple, fruity. The science ↓

The recipe

Ingredients

Contains: milk, shellfish (auto-detected from the ingredients and method; we can miss things, so check labels)

Also mentioned in the method: scallop

Directions

Prepare

  1. Cut the cold calf's head or veal into small, delicate slices or scallops.

Make the dressing

  1. Knead the butter and lemon juice together smoothly with a knife.

  2. In a saucepan, melt the butter mixture over a gentle heat for 1-2 minutes without browning it.

  3. Gradually add the veal gravy or mushroom catsup, stirring continuously until combined.

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 aroma chemistry they share, and how many recipes mention both.

  1. Veal + lemontop 8% of all pairs
    Aroma overlapmoderate
    Mentioned together4,580 recipes

    Shared aroma: 3-hexenal (apple, fruity).

  2. Butter + lemontop 8% of all pairs
    Aroma overlapstrong
    Mentioned together41,197 recipes

    Shared aroma: 3-hexenal (apple, fruity).

  3. Veal + buttertop 11% of all pairs
    Aroma overlapmoderate
    Mentioned together9,381 recipes

    Shared aroma: 3-hexenal (apple, fruity).

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

What each ingredient does

Butter
Melts into the sauce to give it richness and a smooth, silky mouthfeel.
Lemon juice
Adds acidity that brightens the flavour and balances the richness of the butter.
Veal gravy or mushroom catsup
Supplies savoury depth and liquid that thins the butter into a pourable dressing.

The step that matters

Melting the butter mixture without browning it. Over-high heat makes the butter's milk solids brown and turn bitter, and the emulsion can separate, so the dressing stays gentle and smooth only on low heat.

“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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