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Roast Fillet Op Veal

A roasted veal fillet stuffed and basted with butter, served with ham or bacon and optional fresh cucumbers.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 5 ingredients
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Why it works: Veal and ham are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 15% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 3,264 recipes. Both carry 2,4-decadienal, which smells seaweed. The science ↓

Roast Fillet Op Veal

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Remove the bone from the fillet and fill the space with stuffing.

  2. Place a layer of stuffing under the fat and truss the fillet into a good shape with tape.

Roast

  1. Position the fillet a distance from the fire and baste it with butter.

  2. Baste frequently to prevent the fat from burning.

  3. Roast for 3 to 4 hours, depending on the size.

Serve

  1. Once cooked, pour melted butter over the fillet and serve with ham or bacon and fresh cucumbers if in season.

  2. Wash the fillet in cold water before cooking.

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. Veal + hamtop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together3,264 recipes

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

  2. Butter + hamtop 16% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together5,475 recipes

    Shared aroma: trans-2-decenal (waxy, orange).

  3. Veal + cucumbertop 23% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together439 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2,6-nonadienal (cucumber, green).

  4. Veal + buttertop 23% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together9,381 recipes

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

  5. Butter + cucumbertop 24% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,185 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2,6-nonadienal (cucumber, green).

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

What each ingredient does

Veal fillet
Lean muscle meat that firms and sets as it cooks, giving the roast its structure and sliceable texture.
Butter
Fat that carries heat over the surface, adding richness and helping the outside brown.

The step that matters

Baste frequently to prevent the fat from burning. Fat exposed to direct heat can scorch before the centre cooks. Regular basting with butter keeps the surface coated and moist, and lets the fat brown evenly rather than burn.

Swap the cucumber

The recipe marks cucumber as optional. How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (veal, butter, ham):

  1. Onionfits better
  2. Leekfits better
  3. Potatofits better
  4. Cucumberthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against veal, butter, ham. 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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