Why it works: Pepper and parsley match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 2% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 34,122 recipes. Both carry 4'-methylacetophenone, which smells bitter almond. The science ↓
Roast 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
Preheat the oven to 350°F (175°C).
Place the veal in a roasting pan and pour 1 cup of hot water over it.
Season with coarse sea salt and black pepper.
Roast and serve
Bake thoroughly for 20 minutes per pound.
Garnish with parsley sprigs and serve with currant jelly.
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.
-
Pepper + parsleytop 2% of all pairsSmell alikestrongCooked together34,122 recipes
Shared aroma: 4'-methylacetophenone (bitter almond).
-
Veal + parsleytop 17% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together4,766 recipes
Shared aroma: 2,4-decadienal (seaweed).
-
Veal + peppertop 19% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together10,049 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).
-
Pepper + curranttop 28% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together1,345 recipes
Shared aroma: isoamyl acetate (banana, pear).
-
Parsley + curranttop 29% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together308 recipes
Shared aroma: alpha-pinene (pine, turpentine).
Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs
What each ingredient does
- Veal
- Forms the main body of the dish, becoming tender and juicy as it roasts slowly.
- Hot water
- Adds moisture to the roasting pan, helping keep the meat from drying out in the oven.
- Currant jelly
- Provides sweetness and acidity that contrast with the rich, savory roasted meat.
The step that matters
Bake thoroughly for 20 minutes per pound. Veal is lean and dries out quickly, so timing by weight matters. Cooking until fully done, without overshooting, keeps the meat tender and juicy.
Swap the currant
How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (veal, pepper, parsley):
- Lemonfits better
- Limefits better
- Cherryfits better
- Currantthe original
Fit is the average pairing score against veal, pepper, parsley. 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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