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Quenelles of Veal

A savory dish of veal and calf udder quenelles served with a panada of soaked bread crumbs and a butter‑herb sauce.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 14 ingredients
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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 meats

  1. Cut veal into slices and scrape off sinews until you have ½ pound of meat.

  2. Boil the calf's udder in water until done.

  3. Cool the boiled udder and trim it.

  4. Cut the udder into small pieces.

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

  6. Make a ball of the udder mixture.

  7. Make a ball of the veal.

  8. Make a ball of the panada.

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 small pan, melt butter.

  4. Add ham, parsley, shallots, bay leaf, clove, mace, and mushrooms to the melted butter and fry gently.

  5. Moisten the mixture with a spoonful of broth.

  6. Boil the mixture for 20 minutes.

  7. Drain the broth over the panada through a sieve.

  8. Reduce the panada while stirring constantly.

  9. When the panada is dry, add a small piece of butter and let it dry further.

  10. Stir in the yolks of two eggs.

  11. Cool the panada 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. Milk + buttertop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together81,283 recipes

    Shared aroma: (z)-4-heptenal (biscuit, cream).

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 soft, smooth texture when pounded into the mixture.
Penny rolls
Soaked in milk, the crumbs form the panada that binds and lightens the mixture.
Egg yolks
Enrich the mixture and help bind it as it sets when cooked.
Butter
Adds fat and richness to the panada and its flavour.

The step that matters

Reducing the panada while stirring constantly. The panada can scorch or stick if left unattended, and it must be dried to a firm paste so it binds well and does not make the quenelles soggy.

Swap the mace

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

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

Fit is the average pairing score against veal, milk, 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.

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