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Veal Loaf

A loaf of finely chopped veal mixed with eggs, butter, crackers, and seasonings, baked until cooked.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 8 ingredients
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Why it works: Pepper and sage 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 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).

  2. In a bowl, mix the eggs and cream (or milk) together.

  3. Combine the veal, crushed crackers, black pepper, coarse sea salt, and sage in a large bowl.

  4. Add the egg mixture to the veal mixture and mix well.

  5. Form the mixture into a loaf shape.

Bake and serve

  1. Place the loaf in a baking dish and bake for 2.5 hours, basting with melted butter and water occasionally.

  2. Once done, let it cool slightly before slicing and serving.

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 + sagetop 3% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together5,388 recipes

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

  2. Butter + creamtop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together41,516 recipes

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

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

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

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

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

  5. Butter + eggtop 17% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together118,967 recipes

    Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).

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

What each ingredient does

Raw veal
Provides the main body of the loaf, and its finely chopped texture holds the loaf together.
Eggs
Bind the meat mixture so the loaf holds its shape as it sets in the oven.
Butter
Adds richness and helps brown the surface when basted over the loaf during baking.
Cream or milk
Adds moisture to the mixture, keeping the loaf tender rather than dry.
Crackers
Absorb liquid and add bulk, helping the loaf hold together and stay moist.

The step that matters

Basting during the long bake. The loaf bakes for a long time, so the surface can dry out and toughen. Regular basting with butter and water adds moisture and helps the exterior brown gently.

Swap the sage

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

  1. Nutmegfits better
  2. Parsleyfits better
  3. Tarragonfits about as well
  4. Sagethe original

Fit is the average pairing score against veal, butter, egg, cream, 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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