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Quenelles of Veal

Quenelles of Veal are small, smooth dumplings made from veal, suet, bread crumbs, eggs, and seasonings, poached and served with white sauce.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 8 ingredients
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Why it works: Beef and pepper are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 10% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 18,971 recipes. Both carry 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine, which smells earthy, pea. The science ↓

Quenelles of Veal

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the mixture

  1. Chop the veal and suet finely and pound them in a mortar.

  2. Soak the bread crumbs in white stock or milk, then squeeze them through a clean cloth.

  3. Add the soaked bread to the veal and suet mixture, season with pepper, salt, and spices.

  4. Incorporate the eggs and pound the mixture until smooth.

Shape and cook

  1. Shape the mixture into egg-like forms using a spoon.

  2. Poach in water or steam in small shapes.

Serve

  1. Serve with a good white 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. Beef + peppertop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together18,971 recipes

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

  2. Bread + milktop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together11,466 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-undecenal (sweet).

  3. Veal + beeftop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together3,784 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2,6-nonadienal (cucumber, green).

  4. Beef + milktop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together3,759 recipes

    Shared aroma: 1-hexanal (fruit).

  5. Beef + breadtop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together4,032 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-acetyl-1-pyrroline (popcorn, roasted).

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

What each ingredient does

Veal
Provides the main lean meat body and structure of the quenelle.
Beef suet or calf's udder
Adds fat that keeps the quenelles moist and tender during cooking.
Bread crumbs
Soaked and squeezed, they add moisture and a light, soft texture.
Eggs
Bind the mixture and help it set firm when poached or steamed.

The step that matters

Pounding the mixture until smooth. Thorough pounding breaks the meat fibres into a fine, uniform paste, which makes the quenelles tender and keeps them from crumbling when they are shaped and cooked.

“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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