Skip to main content
Main

Quenelles of Veal

Quenelles of Veal are delicate meatballs made from veal and calf udder, bound with crumbs, béchamel, and seasonings.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 14 ingredients
Jump to recipe ↓

Why it works: Parsley and shallot match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 3,737 recipes. Both carry 2,4-decadienal, which smells seaweed. The science ↓

Quenelles of Veal

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the meat and udder

  1. Cut veal into slices.

  2. Scrape off sinews until you have ½ pound of meat.

  3. Boil the calf’s udder in stock or plain water until done.

  4. Cool the udder and trim.

  5. Cut the udder into small pieces.

  6. Pound the udder pieces in a mortar until smooth.

  7. Roll the udder and veal into balls of the same size.

Make the panada

  1. Soak the crumbs of the rolls in milk for 30 minutes.

  2. Squeeze out the milk from the soaked crumbs.

  3. In a saucepan, combine the crumbs with béchamel and consommé.

  4. Melt butter in a separate pan.

  5. Sauté ham, parsley, shallots, bay leaf, clove, mace, and mushrooms over low heat.

  6. Moisten the mixture with broth.

  7. Boil for 20 minutes.

  8. Strain over the panada.

  9. Reduce the panada over heat, stirring constantly until dry.

  10. Add a small piece of butter.

  11. Let the butter dry further.

  12. Mix in the egg yolks.

  13. Cool on a plate.

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 + shallottop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together3,737 recipes

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

  2. Shallot + clovetop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together1,677 recipes

    Shared aroma: eucalyptol (eucalyptus, herbal).

  3. Parsley + clovetop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together6,768 recipes

    Shared aroma: cuminaldehyde (Spicy, cumin).

  4. Clove + macetop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together8,400 recipes

    Shared aroma: methyleugenol (clove, spice).

  5. Sauce + shallottop 14% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,303 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

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

What each ingredient does

Veal
Provides the main meaty body and firm texture of the quenelles.
Calf’s udder
Adds a smooth, tender body that helps the quenelle mixture hold together.
Penny rolls
Soaked crumbs bind the mixture and give it a light, soft texture.
Béchamel sauce
Adds richness and moisture to the panada, helping it stay tender.
Egg yolks
Enrich the mixture and help bind it as it sets.

The step that matters

Reducing the panada until dry. Stirring constantly over heat drives off moisture so the panada becomes stiff enough to shape. If it stays too wet, the quenelles will be soft and may fall apart when cooked.

Swap the mace

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (veal, sauce, butter, ham, parsley, shallot, clove):

  1. Capersfits better
  2. Tarragonfits better
  3. Thymefits better
  4. Macethe original

Fit is the average pairing score against veal, sauce, butter, ham, parsley, shallot, clove. 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

Mushroom SoupMushroom Soup60 recipesVeal PattiesVeal Patties50 recipesBeef, Mutton, or Veal BrothBeef, Mutton, or Veal Broth6 recipesTomato SoupTomato Soup526 recipes