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Hash of Cold Fillet of Veal

A veal hash with onions, flour, butter, catsup, served over buttered toast.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
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Why it works: Onion and pepper are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 11% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 68,474 recipes. Both carry 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine, which smells earthy, pea. The science ↓

Hash of Cold Fillet of Veal

Ingredients

Directions

Make the hash

  1. In a skillet, combine the diced veal, chopped onion, hot water, salt, and pepper.

  2. Simmer the mixture over low heat.

  3. In a bowl, mix the flour and butter until smooth, then stir into the skillet until thickened.

  4. Add the catsup and stir well.

Serve

  1. Serve the hash over the buttered toast.

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

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

  2. Flour + buttertop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together124,287 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  3. Onion + buttertop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together42,912 recipes

    Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).

  4. Veal + oniontop 17% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together6,841 recipes

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

  5. Onion + flourtop 17% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together32,460 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

Flour and butter barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 124,287 recipes: they work on texture and structure more than aroma.

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

What each ingredient does

Veal
Provides the main body of the hash as its meat, cooked gently until tender in the liquid.
Flour
Thickens the hot liquid into a smooth, lightly bodied sauce when mixed with butter.
Butter
Combines with flour to form a roux that helps thicken the sauce and adds richness.
Catsup
Adds sweetness and acidity, giving the hash its tangy, savory-sweet flavor.

The step that matters

Stirring the flour and butter into the skillet. Adding the flour and butter mixture to hot liquid without first blending it smooth can leave lumps. Mixing it until smooth and stirring it in gradually lets the starch disperse evenly and thicken the sauce uniformly.

Swap the onion

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

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

Fit is the average pairing score against veal, pepper, flour, butter. 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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