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Veal Roast Loin of Veal

A roasted veal loin with a parsley or thyme breadcrumb dressing, baked and basted, served with gravy.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 9 ingredients
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Why it works: Pepper and parsley 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 Roast Loin of Veal

Oven, in the book's wordsA rather hot oven

Ingredients

Directions

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

Prepare

  1. Wash and rub the veal with coarse sea salt and black pepper, leaving the kidney intact and surrounding it with salt. Let it stand for 2 hours.

  2. Make a dressing by mixing bread crumbs, salt, pepper, chopped parsley or thyme, hot water, butter, and an egg.

  3. Unroll the veal, place the dressing around the kidney, fold it back, and secure with white cotton twine.

Roast

  1. Place the veal in a dripping pan with the thick side down and bake at 400°F (200°C) for 30 minutes.

  2. Add hot water to the pan, baste often, and after another 30 minutes, turn the roast over.

  3. When nearly done, dredge lightly with flour and baste with melted butter.

Serve and make gravy

  1. Remove the twine before serving. The 4‑pound roast will be tender in about 2 hours.

  2. To make gravy, skim excess fat from the drippings, dredge flour in the pan, stir until browned, add hot water if necessary, boil briefly, and serve.

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 + parsleytop 2% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together34,122 recipes

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

  2. Bread + buttertop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together27,232 recipes

    Shared aroma: delta-decalactone (sweet, creamy).

  3. Butter + flourtop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together124,287 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  4. Parsley + flourtop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together16,675 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  5. Bread + eggtop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together22,662 recipes

    Shared aroma: (e)-2-octenal (fatty, green).

Butter and flour 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 loin
Forms the main body of the roast, cooking into tender meat over the long roasting time.
Bread crumbs
Absorb moisture and butter in the dressing, giving it a soft, stuffing-like texture.
Butter
Adds fat for richness and helps the surface brown when basted over the roast.
Egg
Binds the dressing so it holds together around the kidney while cooking.
Flour
Dusted on the roast and in the pan, it helps the surface brown and thickens the gravy.

The step that matters

Turning and basting the roast. Basting and turning at set intervals keeps the surface moist and promotes even browning, so the outside does not dry or scorch before the centre is cooked through.

Swap the parsley

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

  1. Parsleythe original
  2. Nutmegfits about as well
  3. Sagefits less well
  4. Capersfits less well

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