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Fricandeau of Veal

A braised veal roast cooked with carrots, onion, bouquet garni, cloves, bacon, and butter, finished with burnt sugar.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 10 ingredients
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Why it works: Carrot and clove match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 5% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 5,873 recipes. Both carry cuminaldehyde, which smells Spicy, cumin. The science ↓

Fricandeau of Veal

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Lard the veal thickly with fat bacon and tie it with string to maintain its shape.

  2. In a copper saucepan, arrange the carrots, onion, bouquet garni, cloves, and bacon, then add the veal.

Braise

  1. Add the butter and place on the fire until the vegetables are browned.

  2. Pour in the stock, then move the saucepan to the side of the fire and cook gently for about 2.5 hours, basting occasionally.

  3. Do not cover the saucepan.

Finish and serve

  1. At the end, add a little burnt sugar to the gravy, clear it of fat with soft paper, and serve with a puree of sorrel or tomato 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 + clovetop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together5,873 recipes

    Shared aroma: cuminaldehyde (Spicy, cumin).

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

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

  3. Onion + clovetop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together16,901 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-nonanone (fruity, floral).

  4. Onion + buttertop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together42,912 recipes

    Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).

  5. Veal + carrottop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together3,015 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
Is the main cut that becomes tender and moist during slow braising.
Butter
Adds richness and helps the vegetables and veal brown in the pan.
Stock
Provides the liquid that braises the veal and forms the base of the gravy.
Fat bacon
Larding adds fat and flavour inside the lean veal as it cooks.
Carrots
Add sweetness and aroma to the braising liquid and gravy.

The step that matters

Keep the saucepan uncovered and cook gently. Gentle heat with the lid off lets the liquid reduce and the surface brown, concentrating the gravy, while a covered pan would steam the meat and dilute the flavour. Basting keeps the surface moist.

Swap the clove

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

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

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

More braised veal recipes

Neck 27Fillet 11Breast 10Cutlets 4Neck with Oyster Sauce 3Shoulder 3 See all 22 →

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