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Roast Fillet of Veal

A veal fillet stuffed with breadcrumbs, salt pork, onion, and herbs, then roasted with water.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 7 ingredients
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Why it works: Pork and onion are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 10% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 18,214 recipes. Both carry 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine, which smells earthy, pea. The science ↓

Roast Fillet of Veal

Ingredients

Directions

The book gives no oven temperature. The 350°F (175°C) in the steps was added when the recipe was transcribed, as a starting point.

Prepare

  1. Preheat the oven to 350°F (175°C).

  2. Stuff the cavity of the veal fillet with a mixture of bread crumbs, salt pork, onion, sweet herbs, salt, and pepper.

  3. Fill any gaps with the remaining stuffing and secure with skewers.

Roast

  1. Place the stuffed fillet in a baking pan and add water.

  2. Cover and bake for 1.5 hours, basting occasionally.

  3. Remove the cover and roast until the fillet is a rich brown.

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. Pork + oniontop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together18,214 recipes

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

  2. Veal + porktop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together4,930 recipes

    Shared aroma: 4-heptenal (creamy, biscuit).

  3. Onion + peppertop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together68,474 recipes

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

  4. Bread + porktop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together4,371 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-acetyl-1-pyrroline (popcorn, roasted).

  5. Bread + oniontop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together8,676 recipes

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

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

What each ingredient does

Veal fillet
Forms the main body of the dish and becomes tender and juicy as it cooks.
Bread crumbs
Absorb juices and fat from the stuffing, keeping the filling moist and light.
Salt pork
Adds fat that keeps the lean veal moist and flavourful during roasting.
Onion
Adds aroma and savoury sweetness as it softens in the stuffing.
Sweet herbs
Add aromatic flavour to the stuffing.

The step that matters

Remove the cover and roast until the fillet is a rich brown. Covering keeps the veal moist early on, but browning needs dry, direct heat. Uncovered roasting lets the surface brown through Maillard reactions, which builds colour and flavour. Watch the colour rather than just the clock.

Swap the onion

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

  1. Capsicumfits better
  2. Tomatofits better
  3. Potatofits better
  4. Onionthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against veal, bread, pork, pepper. 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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