Skip to main content
Main

Croustade De Rognon De Veau

A pastry crust filled with a mixture of veal kidney, fat, mushrooms, and seasonings.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 11 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 ↓

Croustade De Rognon De Veau

Ingredients

Directions

The book gives no oven temperature. The 400°F (200°C) in the steps was added when the recipe was transcribed, as a starting point.

Prepare the filling

  1. Chop the kidney and its fat together.

  2. Fry the mushrooms in a little butter, then chop them and mix with the kidney.

  3. Add parsley, shallot (if using), bread crumbs, pepper, salt, and egg to bind.

Assemble

  1. Fry slices of bread in butter until golden, then shape them oval.

  2. Spread the kidney mixture over the bread about an inch high.

  3. Top with fine bread crumbs and drizzle with melted butter.

Bake and serve

  1. Bake in a 400°F (200°C) oven until golden brown.

  2. Serve hot, cutting each slice into three for guests.

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

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

  3. Mushroom + shallottop 4% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,982 recipes

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

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

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

  5. Mushroom + buttertop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together12,525 recipes

    Shared aroma: trans-2-decenal (waxy, orange).

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

What each ingredient does

Veal kidney
Forms the rich, savory body of the filling and gives the croustade its main flavor.
Egg
Binds the filling so it holds together when spread and baked.
Bread crumbs
Absorb moisture and help bind the filling, giving it a firmer texture.
Fat from the kidney
Adds richness and moisture so the filling stays tender rather than dry.
Mushrooms
Add earthy depth and moisture to the filling.
Butter
Browns the fried bread and topping, adding color and a nutty aroma.

The step that matters

Fry the bread until golden. The fried bread base must be sturdy and browned so it holds the moist filling without going soggy during baking. Butter browns through the Maillard reaction, which adds color and flavor.

Swap the shallot

The recipe marks shallot as optional. How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (veal, mushroom, parsley, bread, pepper, egg, butter):

  1. Shallotthe original
  2. Capsicumfits about as well
  3. Asparagusfits about as well
  4. Carrotfits less well

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

You might also like

Brown BreadBrown Bread461 recipesWhite BreadWhite Bread80 recipesBread OmeletteBread Omelette60 recipesMushroom SoupMushroom Soup60 recipes