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Jellied Veal

A chilled veal aspic made with soup stock, gelatin, and lemon and egg slices.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 8 ingredients
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Why it works: Pepper and lemon match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 3% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 27,047 recipes. Both carry trans-2-nonenal, which smells cardboard, fatty. The science ↓

Jellied Veal

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Season the chopped veal with salt.

  2. In a pot, combine the soup stock and gelatin; stir until dissolved.

  3. Add pepper and nutmeg to the stock mixture.

Assemble and set

  1. Line a mold with lemon and egg slices.

  2. Fill the mold with the chopped veal and bits of lemon and egg.

  3. Pour the soup stock mixture over the filled mold.

  4. Refrigerate until set and cool.

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. Pepper + lemontop 3% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together27,047 recipes

    Shared aroma: trans-2-nonenal (cardboard, fatty).

  2. Nutmeg + lemontop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together11,318 recipes

    Shared aroma: beta-phellandrene (minty, terpene).

  3. Pepper + nutmegtop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together13,015 recipes

    Shared aroma: 4'-methylacetophenone (bitter almond).

  4. Veal + lemontop 17% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together4,580 recipes

    Shared aroma: 3-hexenal (apple, fruity).

  5. Nutmeg + eggtop 17% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together24,744 recipes

    Shared aroma: acetic acid (sour, vinegar).

Nutmeg and egg barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 24,744 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
Forms the bulk of the dish and provides the meaty flavor.
Gelatine
Sets the stock into a firm jelly that holds the veal in place.
Soup stock
Supplies the liquid that becomes the jelly and carries the seasoning.
Hard boiled eggs
Adds firm texture and a mild richness in the sliced layers.
Lemon
Adds acidity and bright flavor that cuts through the rich jelly.

The step that matters

Dissolve the gelatine fully in the stock. Gelatine must dissolve completely in warm liquid before the mold is filled. Undissolved granules or stock that is too hot can leave the jelly grainy or prevent it from setting firmly when chilled.

Swap the nutmeg

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

  1. Parsleyfits better
  2. Marjoramfits better
  3. Tarragonfits better
  4. Nutmegthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against veal, pepper, egg, lemon. 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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