Why it works: Lemon and parsley match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 14,037 recipes. Both carry beta-phellandrene, which smells minty, terpene. The science ↓
Veal Olives
Ingredients
Directions
Prepare the olives
Cut two thin steaks from a fillet of veal and beat them.
Rub the steaks with the yolk of an egg.
Cut the steaks into strips 4-5 inches long.
Lay a thin piece of fat bacon over each strip.
Sprinkle with bread crumbs, lemon peel, parsley, cayenne pepper, and salt.
Roll each strip and secure with a wooden skewer.
Dip the rolls in beaten egg, then in bread crumbs and parsley.
Fry and make the gravy
Heat clarified beef dripping in a frying pan until boiling.
Fry the veal olives until light brown.
In a separate pot, combine gravy, lemon pickle, walnut catsup, browning sauce, cayenne pepper, and salt.
Thicken the gravy with flour and butter.
Serve
Place the veal olives on a hot dish and strain the hot gravy over them.
Garnish with lemon pickle, forcemeat balls, and pickled mushrooms.
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.
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Lemon + parsleytop 1% of all pairsSmell alikestrongCooked together14,037 recipes
Shared aroma: beta-phellandrene (minty, terpene).
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Parsley + peppertop 2% of all pairsSmell alikestrongCooked together34,122 recipes
Shared aroma: 4'-methylacetophenone (bitter almond).
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Lemon + peppertop 3% of all pairsSmell alikestrongCooked together27,047 recipes
Shared aroma: trans-2-nonenal (cardboard, fatty).
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Parsley + walnuttop 7% of all pairsSmell alikestrongCooked together865 recipes
Shared aroma: 2,4-decadienal (seaweed).
-
Pepper + beeftop 10% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together18,971 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).
Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs
What each ingredient does
- Veal steaks
- Provide the lean meat that is rolled around the filling and cooked through.
- Egg
- The yolk and beaten egg bind the bread crumb coating to the rolls.
- Bread crumbs
- Form a crisp, golden coating that browns when fried.
- Fat bacon
- Adds fat that bastes the veal as it cooks, keeping the rolls moist and flavourful.
- Flour and butter
- Thicken the gravy into a smooth, glossy sauce.
The step that matters
Frying the rolls until light brown. Frying over steady, sufficient heat browns the coating and sets the egg and crumbs before the veal dries out. Overheating scorches the crumbs while the centre stays underdone, and too little heat leaves the coating greasy and soggy.
Swap the walnut
How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (veal, egg, bread, lemon, parsley, pepper, beef):
- Walnutthe original
- Chickpeafits about as well
- Peasfits about as well
- Beansfits about as well
Fit is the average pairing score against veal, egg, bread, lemon, parsley, pepper, beef. 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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