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Veal Balls

Fried veal meatballs served with gravy.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 9 ingredients
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Why it works: Parsley and pepper match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 2% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 34,122 recipes. Both carry 4'-methylacetophenone, which smells bitter almond. The science ↓

Veal Balls

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Remove skin and bones from the veal.

  2. Mix veal with soaked French roll, veal suet, egg yolks, onion, parsley, pepper, and salt.

Shape and fry

  1. Form the mixture into balls and roll them in raspings.

  2. Fry the balls until golden brown.

Make the gravy

  1. Boil the bones and skin to make gravy.

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. Parsley + peppertop 2% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together34,122 recipes

    Shared aroma: 4'-methylacetophenone (bitter almond).

  2. Onion + parsleytop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together25,843 recipes

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

  3. Onion + peppertop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together68,474 recipes

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

  4. Veal + oniontop 17% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together6,841 recipes

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

  5. Veal + parsleytop 17% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together4,766 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
Provides the main body and meaty texture of the meatballs.
French roll crust soaked in milk
Adds moisture and softness, keeping the meatballs tender rather than dense.
Veal suet
Adds fat that keeps the meatballs juicy and rich during frying.
Egg yolks
Bind the mixture together so the balls hold their shape.
Raspings
Form a crisp coating that browns well when fried.

The step that matters

Fry the balls until golden brown. Frying over moderate heat browns the breadcrumb-style coating through Maillard reactions while the interior cooks gently. Too hot a pan browns the outside before the centre is cooked, and too cool a pan lets the balls soak up oil and fall apart.

Swap the onion

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (veal, milk, egg, parsley, pepper):

  1. Carrotfits better
  2. Capsicumfits better
  3. Potatofits better
  4. Onionthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against veal, milk, egg, parsley, pepper. 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.

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