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Veal Olives

Veal pieces seasoned with pepper, salt, marjoram, and egg, baked with butter and veal gravy.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 8 ingredients
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Why it works: Pepper and marjoram match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 3% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 2,609 recipes. Both carry estragole, which smells anise, licorice. The science ↓

Veal Olives

Oven, in the book's wordsA hot oven

Ingredients

Directions

The book says “a hot oven”. The 400°F (200°C) in the steps is the modern equivalent, not the book's own figure.

Prepare

  1. Mix pepper, salt, sweet marjoram, and beaten egg.

  2. Spread the mixture on the pieces of veal.

  3. Fasten the corners with small skewers.

  4. Place them in a pan with enough veal gravy or light stock to cover the bottom.

  5. Dredge the veal with flour.

Bake and serve

  1. Bake in a hot oven at 400°F (200°C).

  2. When browned on top, place a small bit of butter on each piece.

  3. Cook until tender, about 20 minutes.

  4. Serve with horseradish.

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. Pepper + marjoramtop 3% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together2,609 recipes

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

  2. Marjoram + flourtop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,265 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  3. Flour + buttertop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together124,287 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  4. Egg + flourtop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together106,462 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  5. Egg + buttertop 17% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together118,967 recipes

    Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).

Flour and butter barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 124,287 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

Pieces of veal
The main meat, wrapped around the filling and becoming tender as it cooks.
Egg
Binds the seasoned mixture so it stays together on the veal.
Flour
Dredging helps the surface brown and thickens the pan liquid slightly.
Butter
Adds richness and helps the tops brown further.
Sweet marjoram
Adds a mild, herbal aroma to the filling.
Veal gravy or light stock
Provides moisture so the veal cooks gently and does not dry out.

The step that matters

Keep enough liquid in the pan. The veal is cooked in a hot oven, and the gravy or stock in the bottom of the pan supplies moisture. If the liquid runs low, the meat can dry out and scorch, so it should cover the bottom as directed.

Swap the marjoram

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

  1. Parsleyfits better
  2. Nutmegfits better
  3. Sagefits about as well
  4. Marjoramthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against veal, pepper, egg, flour, butter. 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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