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Veal Olives

Veal Olives are small veal rolls seasoned with crackers, butter, savory, sage, salt, pepper, and baked with water.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 8 ingredients
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Why it works: Sage and pepper match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 3% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 5,388 recipes. Both carry beta-phellandrene, which smells minty, terpene. The science ↓

Veal Olives

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. The book gives no cooking times either; the times in the steps were added in transcription, so check for doneness rather than trusting the clock.

Prepare

  1. Preheat your oven to 350°F (175°C).

Shape the olives

  1. In a bowl, mix the veal, crushed crackers, butter, savory, sage, salt, and pepper.

  2. Shape the mixture into small rolls and secure with toothpicks.

Bake

  1. Place the rolls in a baking dish and add the water.

  2. Cover and bake for about 30 minutes, or until the veal is cooked through.

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. Sage + peppertop 3% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together5,388 recipes

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

  2. Veal + sagetop 14% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together670 recipes

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

  3. Butter + sagetop 17% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together3,312 recipes

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

  4. Veal + peppertop 19% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together10,049 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).

  5. Butter + peppertop 21% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together85,593 recipes

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

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 olives and cooks into a tender, meaty filling.
Crackers
Crumbs absorb juices and bind the meat so the rolls hold their shape.
Butter
Adds fat that keeps the meat moist and rich during baking.
Water
Creates steam in the covered dish, keeping the rolls moist as they cook.

The step that matters

Cover and bake until cooked through. Covering traps steam so the thin rolls stay moist, while baking until the veal is fully cooked ensures it is safe to eat. Checking doneness rather than relying only on the timer prevents dry or undercooked meat.

Swap the sage

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

  1. Parsleyfits about as well
  2. Sagethe original
  3. Thymefits less well
  4. Tarragonfits less well

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