Name: To Collar Veal
Ingredients: 1 breast of veal; stuffing (moistened with eggs); weak stock; forcemeat balls (optional); lemon (for garnish); bran (for pickling); water (for pickling); coarse sea salt (formerly 'bay salt') (for pickling); vinegar (for pickling)

Why it works: Veal and lemon are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 17% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 4,580 recipes. Both carry 3-hexenal, which smells apple, fruity. The science ↓

To Collar Veal

Ingredients

Directions

The book gives no oven temperature. The 350°F (175°C) in the steps was added when the recipe was transcribed, as a starting point.

Prepare

Bone the breast of veal and beat it flat.
Cover the inside with a nice stuffing moistened with eggs.
Roll it tightly and tie it.

Bake and serve

Bake in an oven at 350°F (175°C) with some weak stock in the dish.
Make a rich gravy, strain and thicken it, then pour it over the veal.
Serve with or without forcemeat balls and garnish with cut lemon.

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.

Veal + lemontop 17% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together4,580 recipes

Shared aroma: 3-hexenal (apple, fruity).
Egg + lemontop 19% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together44,316 recipes

Shared aroma: (e,e)-2,4-decadienal (fatty, deep fried).
Lemon + vinegartop 20% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together7,334 recipes

Shared aroma: acetic acid (sour, vinegar).
Veal + eggtop 28% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together6,845 recipes

Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).
Egg + vinegartop 33% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together12,922 recipes

Shared aroma: acetic acid (sour, vinegar).

Egg and lemon barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 44,316 recipes: they work on texture and structure more than aroma.

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

What each ingredient does

Eggs: Bind the stuffing so it holds together and stays moist during baking.
Veal breast: Forms the main meat that is rolled around the stuffing and cooked until tender.
Weak stock: Adds moisture in the dish so the veal does not dry out while baking.

“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.