Why it works: Pepper and celery match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 5% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 16,012 recipes. Both carry 4'-methylacetophenone, which smells bitter almond. The science ↓
Veal Patties
Ingredients
Directions
Make the filling
Combine veal and salt pork in a pot.
Stew gently for 10-15 minutes.
Season with salt, pepper, and chopped celery.
Stir in flour, egg yolk, and milk to form a thin batter. Bring the mixture to a boil.
Set aside.
Assemble and serve
Prepare a flaky pastry crust and roll it out.
Cut the crust into rounds the size of a small sauce plate. Cut halfway through the center of each round to create a cover.
Place a spoonful of the veal stew in each crust. Cover with the top.
Serve.
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.
Photo for illustrative purposes only · Contact us to use it
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.
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Pepper + celerytop 5% of all pairsSmell alikestrongCooked together16,012 recipes
Shared aroma: 4'-methylacetophenone (bitter almond).
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Milk + buttertop 7% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together81,283 recipes
Shared aroma: (z)-4-heptenal (biscuit, cream).
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Veal + porktop 11% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together4,930 recipes
Shared aroma: 4-heptenal (creamy, biscuit).
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Flour + buttertop 12% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together124,287 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
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Pork + milktop 12% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together4,386 recipes
Shared aroma: 4-heptenal (creamy, biscuit).
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
- Veal
- Provides the meat base that becomes tender during gentle stewing.
- Egg yolk
- Helps bind the batter and gives the filling a richer, smoother set.
- Flour
- Thickens the milk and egg mixture into a thin batter.
- Milk
- Adds moisture and body to the thickened batter.
- Salt pork
- Adds fat and savory flavor to the stewed veal.
The step that matters
Bring the mixture to a boil. Flour needs to reach a boil to fully thicken and lose its raw starchy taste. Boiling too gently or too briefly can leave the batter thin and floury.
Swap the celery
How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (veal, pork, pepper, flour, egg, milk, butter):
- Nutmegfits better
- Parsleyfits better
- Sagefits better
- Celerythe original
Fit is the average pairing score against veal, pork, pepper, flour, egg, milk, 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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