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Breast of Veal Rolled in a Ragoout

A veal breast rolled with forcemeat, stewed, then served in a ragoût of truffles, mushrooms, and other organ meats.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 14 ingredients
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Why it works: Veal and liver match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 3% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 392 recipes. Both carry enoic acid, which smells butter, cheesy. The science ↓

Breast of Veal Rolled in a Ragoout

Oven, in the book's wordsA gentle oven

Ingredients

Directions

The book says “a gentle oven”. The 350°F (175°C) in the steps is the modern equivalent, not the book's own figure.

Prepare the veal

  1. Remove the bones from the breast of veal.

  2. Beat the veal breast flat.

  3. Prepare the forcemeat.

  4. Mix half of the forcemeat with the egg yolks until smooth.

  5. Spread half of the breast with plain forcemeat.

  6. Spread the other half of the breast with yellow forcemeat.

  7. Roll the breast tightly.

  8. Tie the rolled breast securely with kitchen twine.

Stew and glaze

  1. Stew the rolled veal in a good braise until tender.

  2. Let the veal cool in the braise.

  3. Trim the veal and place it on a dish.

  4. Put the veal in a gentle oven at 350°F (175°C).

  5. Glaze the veal three or four times.

Make the ragoût and serve

  1. Prepare a ragoût with truffles, mushrooms, cocks’ combs, sweetbreads, fat livers, and artichoke bottoms in béchamel sauce.

  2. Heat the ragoût.

  3. Mix in the egg yolks, cream, and lemon juice.

  4. Place the breast of veal in the center of the ragoût on the dish.

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. Veal + livertop 3% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together392 recipes

    Shared aroma: enoic acid (butter, cheesy).

  2. Beef + mushroomtop 4% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together3,232 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2,4-nonadienal (fatty, green).

  3. Truffle + mushroomtop 4% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,900 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2,4-nonadienal (fatty, green).

  4. Mushroom + artichoketop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together447 recipes

    Shared aroma: 1-octen-3-one (mushroom, metallic).

  5. Veal + truffletop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together815 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2,4-nonadienal (fatty, green).

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

What each ingredient does

Veal breast
Forms the main body of the dish, becoming tender when slowly braised.
Egg yolks
Bind the forcemeat and enrich the ragoût, giving it a smooth, thickened texture.
Béchamel sauce
Provides a creamy base that holds the ragoût ingredients together.
Truffles
Add a deep, earthy aroma that defines the ragoût.
Sweetbreads
Contribute a soft, delicate texture to the ragoût.
Cream
Adds richness and a smoother, silkier texture to the sauce.

The step that matters

Mixing the egg yolks into the ragoût. Egg yolks thicken when heated but can curdle if the ragoût is too hot. Adding them off the heat or over gentle warmth keeps the sauce smooth and creamy.

“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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