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Veal Loaf

A loaf of veal, salt pork, sweetbreads, and crackers baked with butter and water.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 10 ingredients
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Why it works: Pepper and marjoram match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 3% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 2,609 recipes. Both carry estragole, which smells anise, licorice. The science ↓

Veal Loaf

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.

Prepare

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

Mix and shape

  1. In a large bowl, combine the beaten eggs, chopped veal, chopped salt pork, chopped sweetbreads, and rolled crackers.

  2. Season the mixture with salt, pepper, and sweet marjoram to taste.

  3. Shape the mixture into a roll and place it in a baking dish.

Bake

  1. Baste the loaf well with a mixture of butter and water.

  2. Bake in the preheated oven until 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. Pepper + marjoramtop 3% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together2,609 recipes

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

  2. Veal + porktop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together4,930 recipes

    Shared aroma: 4-heptenal (creamy, biscuit).

  3. Pork + marjoramtop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together883 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-hexenal (green, leafy).

  4. Pork + buttertop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together13,933 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-furfurylthiol (coffee, roasted).

  5. Pork + peppertop 16% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together22,121 recipes

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

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

What each ingredient does

Eggs
Bind the chopped meats and crackers so the loaf holds its shape when sliced.
Veal
Forms the main body of the loaf, giving it its mild, tender meat texture.
Salt pork
Adds fat and moisture, keeping the lean meats from drying out during baking.
Sweetbreads
Contribute a soft, rich texture and delicate flavour to the mixture.
Trenton crackers
Absorb moisture and help the loaf hold together as a binder.

The step that matters

Shape the mixture into a roll. The loaf must be packed firmly and evenly so it holds together when sliced and cooks through at the same rate, since loose or uneven packing leaves gaps and dry or underdone spots.

Swap the marjoram

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

  1. Parsleyfits better
  2. Sagefits better
  3. Thymefits about as well
  4. Marjoramthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against egg, veal, pork, pepper, 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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