Skip to main content
Main

Fricandeau of Veal

A veal fillet stewed with stock, herbs, and bacon, finished with a glaze.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 10 ingredients
Jump to recipe ↓

Why it works: Carrot and onion are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 6% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 21,601 recipes. Both carry 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine, which smells earthy, pea. The science ↓

Fricandeau of Veal

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the veal

  1. Cut the underside of the veal fillet and remove the loose skin.

  2. Lard the top of the fillet.

Stew

  1. In a stewpan, place any meat cuttings, sweet herbs, carrot, onion, and mace.

  2. Lay the fricandeau on the cuttings and top with bacon and more cuttings.

  3. Add 2 cups of stock, cover, and stew for 2 hours over low heat.

Make the glaze and serve

  1. Remove the fricandeau and keep it warm.

  2. Strain the cooking liquid and remove the fat.

  3. Boil the liquid until it thickens into a glaze.

  4. Brush the glaze over the top of the fricandeau.

  5. Serve with sorrel sauce.

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 + oniontop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together21,601 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).

  2. Carrot + macetop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,592 recipes

    Shared aroma: myristicin (spice, warm).

  3. Veal + carrottop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together3,015 recipes

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

  4. Onion + macetop 17% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together7,078 recipes

    Shared aroma: eugenol (clove, spicy).

  5. Meat + oniontop 17% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together6,364 recipes

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

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

What each ingredient does

Veal fillet
Forms the main body of the dish, becoming tender and moist during slow stewing.
Lard
Fat laid over the top that bastes the veal and adds richness as it cooks.
Bacon
Adds savoury, salty fat that flavours the veal and the cooking liquid as it stews.
Stock
Provides the moist cooking liquid that gently braises the veal and later reduces to a glaze.
Onion
Adds aromatic sweetness and depth to the stewing liquid.
Carrot
Contributes gentle sweetness and aroma to the stewing liquid.

The step that matters

Boil the strained liquid into a glaze. The liquid must be skimmed of fat and reduced until it thickens, because concentrated gelatin from the stock sets into a glossy coating; too little reduction leaves it thin and runny.

Swap the mace

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (veal, meat, carrot, onion):

  1. Celeryfits better
  2. Parsleyfits better
  3. Thymefits better
  4. Macethe original

Fit is the average pairing score against veal, meat, carrot, onion. 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

Carrot SoupCarrot Soup134 recipesMeat CroquettesMeat Croquettes52 recipesVeal PattiesVeal Patties50 recipesMeatballsMeatballs37 recipes