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Veal Loaf

A loaf of finely chopped veal mixed with cracker crumbs, herbs, and eggs, baked slowly and basted with butter.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 11 ingredients
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Why it works: Summer savory and thyme match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 214 recipes. Both carry beta-phellandrene, which smells minty, terpene. The science ↓

Veal Loaf

Ingredients

Directions

The book gives no oven temperature. The 300°F (150°C) in the steps was added when the recipe was transcribed, as a starting point.

Prepare the loaf

  1. Preheat the oven to 300°F (150°C).

  2. In a large bowl, combine the chopped veal, cracker crumbs, summer savory, coarse sea salt, stock, pepper, and slightly beaten eggs. Mix well and form the mixture into a loaf shape with your hands.

  3. Cover the top of the loaf with slightly beaten egg and a layer of cracker crumbs.

  4. Place the loaf in a baking pan on four thin strips of chopped salt pork.

Bake and serve

  1. Bake for three hours, basting frequently with melted butter and hot water.

  2. Serve cold for better flavor.

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. Summer savory + thymetop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together214 recipes

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

  2. Pepper + thymetop 4% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together11,585 recipes

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

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

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

  4. Onion + thymetop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together11,171 recipes

    Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).

  5. Summer savory + oniontop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together299 recipes

    Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).

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

What each ingredient does

Veal
Forms the bulk of the loaf and provides the meat structure that holds its shape when sliced.
Eggs
Bind the mixture together and set during baking to hold the loaf firm.
Cracker crumbs
Absorb liquid and help bind the meat so the loaf stays tender rather than dense.
Salt pork
Adds fat and savory flavor as it renders into the loaf and the pan.
Butter
Adds richness and helps the surface brown and stay moist while basting.

The step that matters

Bake for three hours, basting frequently. Long, low-temperature baking lets the meat set gently without drying out, and regular basting with butter and hot water keeps the surface moist and flavorful.

Swap the onion

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (veal, summer savory, pepper, egg, pork, butter, thyme):

  1. Capsicumfits better
  2. Potatofits about as well
  3. Shallotfits about as well
  4. Onionthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against veal, summer savory, pepper, egg, pork, butter, thyme. 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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