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Fricandeau De Veau

A braised veal loaf cooked with onions, carrots, herbs, and a roux-based sauce.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 12 ingredients
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Why it works: Thyme and clove match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 2% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 4,108 recipes. Both carry cuminaldehyde, which smells Spicy, cumin. The science ↓

Fricandeau 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 veal

  1. Remove all skin and fiber from the veal.

  2. Pound the meat with a rolling pin until tender, then shape it into a round loaf.

  3. Lard the top side of the meat.

  4. Place the meat on a perforated pie dish that fits into a braising pot.

Braise

  1. In a pan, fry the onion and carrot in butter until softened.

  2. Add the fried vegetables, bay leaf, thyme, clove, and roux to the pot.

  3. Cook the mixture until chestnut-brown.

  4. Blend the roux with enough boiling water to make it smooth.

  5. Add the strong stock and sherry to the pot.

  6. Cover the pot tightly and bring to a boil over high heat, then reduce to a gentle simmer.

  7. Cook for about 20 minutes per pound, ensuring the pot remains airtight.

Glaze and serve

  1. About 30 minutes before serving, uncover the pot, place it in the oven at 400°F (200°C), and baste frequently until a rich glaze forms.

  2. Once cooked, transfer to a hot dish.

  3. Add a little broth to the pot, stir, and boil down rapidly for a few minutes.

  4. Strain and skim the gravy, then serve in a sauceboat.

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. Thyme + clovetop 2% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together4,108 recipes

    Shared aroma: cuminaldehyde (Spicy, cumin).

  2. Carrot + thymetop 3% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together4,563 recipes

    Shared aroma: cuminaldehyde (Spicy, cumin).

  3. Carrot + clovetop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together5,873 recipes

    Shared aroma: cuminaldehyde (Spicy, cumin).

  4. Onion + carrottop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together21,601 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).

  5. Onion + thymetop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together11,171 recipes

    Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).

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

What each ingredient does

Veal
Forms the main body of the dish, becoming tender through pounding and slow braising.
Butter
Adds richness and carries flavor while softening the onion and carrot.
Flour
Forms a roux that thickens the braising liquid into a smooth gravy.
Strong stock
Provides the savory liquid for braising and the base of the gravy.
Sherry
Adds acidity and aroma that brighten the rich, savory braising liquid.

The step that matters

Cook the roux until chestnut-brown. Browning the flour develops nutty, deeper flavor and color through Maillard reactions. Stopping too pale leaves the gravy tasting flat, while over-browning turns it bitter.

Swap the onion

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (veal, carrot, butter, thyme, clove, flour, sherry):

  1. Leekfits better
  2. Parsnipfits better
  3. Shallotfits better
  4. Onionthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against veal, carrot, butter, thyme, clove, flour, sherry. 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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