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Roast Fillet of Veal

A roasted veal fillet stuffed with bread crumbs, herbs, and onion, served with bacon garnish and lemon slices.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 11 ingredients
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Why it works: Parsley and summer savory match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 241 recipes. Both carry estragole, which smells anise, licorice. The science ↓

Roast Fillet of Veal

Oven, in the book's wordsA slow oven

Ingredients

Directions

The book says “a slow oven”. The 300°F (150°C) in the steps is the modern equivalent, not the book's own figure.

Prepare the veal

  1. Remove the meat from the bone of the veal leg and secure it into a round shape with skewers.

  2. Fill the cavity with the dressing made from bread crumbs, parsley, summer savory, pepper, and salt.

Make the dressing

  1. Slice the onion.

  2. Fry the onion in butter until well cooked.

  3. Pour the butter and onion juice into the bread crumbs and mix thoroughly.

Roast and serve

  1. Roast the veal in a slow oven at 300°F (150°C), allowing 15 minutes per pound, basting frequently with beef dripping.

  2. Remove the veal from the pan.

  3. Prepare a rich brown gravy.

  4. Garnish the dish with fried bacon and lemon slices.

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. Parsley + summer savorytop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together241 recipes

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

  2. Parsley + peppertop 2% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together34,122 recipes

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

  3. Summer savory + peppertop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together671 recipes

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

  4. Beef + oniontop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together17,092 recipes

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

  5. Bread + buttertop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together27,232 recipes

    Shared aroma: delta-decalactone (sweet, creamy).

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

What each ingredient does

Leg of veal
Forms the main body of the dish, and its meat is the centrepiece that is roasted and sliced.
Bread crumbs
Absorb the butter and onion juices, forming a moist dressing that fills the cavity.
Butter
Adds richness and carries onion flavour into the bread crumb dressing.
Onion
Adds savoury aroma and flavour to the dressing once fried in butter.
Beef dripping
Basting fat that keeps the surface moist and helps it brown as it roasts.

The step that matters

Roast in a slow oven, basting frequently. A slow oven cooks the large cut gently so the centre heats through without the outside drying out. Frequent basting with fat keeps the surface moist and promotes even browning.

Swap the summer savory

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (veal, beef, bread, parsley, pepper, onion, butter):

  1. Thymefits better
  2. Marjoramfits about as well
  3. Garlicfits about as well
  4. Summer savorythe original

Fit is the average pairing score against veal, beef, bread, parsley, pepper, onion, 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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