Making Veal Fit For A Prince And Mary Tyler Moore Too!
As I begin to lay out some culinary goals for 2026, I was asked to share one of my most unusual recipes, and explain why…well, you all have the iconic Mary Tyler Moore to thank for this one!
It’s one of the funniest scenes from my favorite TV show, when Mary serves her guests “Veal Prince Orloff” – more on that later – and to honor that moment I had to make “Veal Prince Orloff” myself!
I decided to do a “TV Mashup” using the “Unofficial Downton Abbey Cookbook” – with the added flavors from “The Mary Tyler Moore Show” as well!
“Veal Prince Orloff” is a Franco/Russian dish that involves layering slowly cooked veal with onions and mushroom stuffing, and a decadent Mornay sauce on top!
Here’s the recipe from this fun cookbook:
Making Veal Prince Orloff!
It’s a three part process, and a four page recipe! Let’s start by pepping the Veal – here are those ingredients:
1/2 cup flour
1 tsp garlic powder
1 4-lb boneless loin of veal
1/2 tsp pepper
2 tbp vegetable or olive oil
2 tbp butter
1 garlic clove minced
2 celery heart chopped
1 large carrot chopped
fresh parsley
fresh thyme
1 bay leaf
1 cup dry white wine
Turn on your oven to 350 degrees as you prepare your Veal. Mix the flour and garlic powder in a bowl and dredge the veal. Heat the olive oil in an oven-proof pan and cook your onions and garlic for 5 minutes..
Sear the Veal on all sides in the pan of garlic and onions…I added the butter here as well for a bit of caramelization – this should take ten minutes or so.
After 10 minutes, remove the veal and add in the diced celery and carrot – these will be aromatics to help the Veal when it goes into the oven:
After cooking the carrots and celery, place the Veal back in the mixture, and create a bouquet Garni with the parsley, thyme and bay lead…then, put the oven-proof pan in the oven covered for 1-1/2 hours…
Next up, time to make two very unique stuffings!
The Prince’s Onion Rice Stuffing!
Since the Veal will be in the oven for the next hour and a half, it’s time to make the two stuffings that are an important part of the dish.
Here are the ingredients for the onion stuffing:
1/3 cup long-grain basmati rice
2 tbl. butter
3 cups onion, sliced vertically
1 tsp salt
1/3 cup chicken stock
Cook the rice in boiling water for 5 minutes…this obviously won’t cook it, but you’ll see how it gets finished in a moment.
Cook the onions in the butter for 5 minutes, adding the salt as well…then, pour the partially cooked rice in, along with the chicken stock.
Now, it’s time for this dish to join the Veal! Put a lid on the pan and put the entire thing into the oven along with your veal for 35-40 minutes.
Now, onto the Mushroom stuffing!
“Magic” Mushrooms!
Well, this sauce is magical to be sure – and also very easy…here are the ingredients:
1 pound finely diced mushrooms
1/4 cup half-n-half
4 tbl. butter
salt and pepper to taste
1/4 tsp nutmeg
Saute the diced mushrooms in butter and then add the cream…let it absorb as you stir it for 5 minute or so and it is ready to use as stuffing!
Finally, time to make a Mornay sauce:
This Mornay sauce is a classic:
1-1/2 cup whole milk
4 tbl butter
6 tbl flour
1/3 cup grated Gruyere cheese
14 tsp nutmeg
salt and pepper to taste
Melt the butter, stir in the flour for a minute, then slowly drizzle in the milk…yes, it’s a simple roux…
The key of course is to stir and stir and stir – when thicker, pull from the heat and stir in the nutmeg and cheese and set aside…oh, and I decided to smash some roasted potatoes and steam some Chinese Long Beans to put under the Veal Prince Orloff dish…
Now, time to take the Veal out of the oven and put this dish together:
The “stuffing” is really a layer of both the onion and the mushrooms between each slice of Veal…one last thing to do is cover the dish with the Mornay sauce:
Here’s Veal Prince Orloff!
The dish tasted delicious, but for some reason I didn’t get a very good shot of it!
I think in hindsight I should have plated it by itself so it would pop more, but the side dishes worked really well with the richness of the dish…
When I plated it separately it stood out a bit more – the onion rice mixture on the bottom left and the mushrooms on the upper right…so now, let me tell you how this was inspired by the legendary Mary Tyler Moore!
Mary’s “Veal Prince Orloff” Disaster!
It’s one of the greatest TV shows of all time, and in one memorable episode of the series, Mary has Congresswoman Geddes over for dinner – but Sue Ann Nivens cooks and rushes everyone through the meal, which turns disastrous when Lou Grant sees the Veal Prince Orloff – and this happens!
Yes, that was a very young Henry Winkler who was relegated to the kid’s table – Rhoda invited him without telling Mary! I always love how Lou says “I guess I’m not as hungry as I THOUGHT I WAS!”
If you don’t know the show, then meet iconic Newsman Ted Baxter!
That’s him with the silver hair on the right…one of TV’s great characters, you need to watch the advice Ted gives Mary to bring her out of her ongoing funk in one episode…click here for the hilariously inspirational speech!
Of course, I have cooked from the “Unofficial Downton Abbey Cookbook” before when I made this dish that the downstairs staff enjoys:
It’s a classic Lancashire Hotpot and you can see the entire recipe for this delicious feast here:
This was a fun and easy dish to make, but one I made was even more delicious:
I LOVED this “Pulled Pork Pasta In Almond Cream Sauce” from my “Cooking Under Fire” TV series cookbook – see how much fun it is to make by clicking on the recipe here:
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Categories: Bite Eat Swallow, Bite! Eat! Repeat!, Cookbooks, Eat This!, Fine Dining, Food Pictures, Food Writing, Recipes, Wacky Food, World's Wildest Food
Bite! Eat! Repeat! 
One of my favorite episodes of a really good show! Still makes me laugh like crazy! Good job John! this is certainly a labor of love.
It was fun to make and that show was one of my all-time favorites – thanks for the comment!
Fun to read your recipe decisions . . . Orloff is an oldie but a goodie from way back and belongs in the same stable as Beef Stroganoff. Most of these recipes go back to St Petersburg which was the beautiful ‘stronghold’ of much of Russia’s aristocracy. Almost all of the wealthy fashionably had French chefs – the latter had difficulties as many of the highborn locals did not fancy ‘French tastes’ – so many of the French classic recipes were changed and mushrooms, sour cream etc were incorporated in almost all the recipes emanating from there, ‘Orloff’ amongst them. For me it is rather interesting as my maternal titled grandmother lived in St Petersburg at the time and was actually taken into her friend Count Stroganoff’s kitchen, for instance, and wrote down the latter’s recipe which was kind’of a ‘family heirloom’ for most of us coming later 🙂 !
I still miss that show and it was so ahead of its time! your recipe looks great!