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Veal Cake

A baked layered dish of veal, ham, eggs, parsley, and stock.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 6 ingredients
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Why it works: Parsley and pepper match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 2% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 34,122 recipes. Both carry 4'-methylacetophenone, which smells bitter almond. The science ↓

Veal Cake

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. Remove the brown edges from the veal.

  2. Slice the eggs.

Assemble and bake

  1. In a pretty mold, layer the veal, ham, eggs, and parsley, adding a little pepper between each layer.

  2. Pour in the strong stock to fill the mold.

  3. Bake at 350°F (175°C) for 30 minutes.

Cool and serve

  1. Let it cool.

  2. Turn it out of the mold.

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. Parsley + peppertop 2% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together34,122 recipes

    Shared aroma: 4'-methylacetophenone (bitter almond).

  2. Veal + hamtop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together3,264 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2,4-decadienal (seaweed).

  3. Ham + eggtop 17% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together4,526 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2,4-decadienal (seaweed).

  4. Veal + parsleytop 17% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together4,766 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2,4-decadienal (seaweed).

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

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

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

What each ingredient does

Cold roast veal
Forms the main body of the cake and provides the meaty base.
Hard-boiled eggs
Add firm, sliced layers that hold their shape when the cake is turned out.
Strong stock
Fills the mold and, once chilled, binds the layers together into a set mass.
Cold ham
Adds savory, salty flavor and a contrasting texture between the veal layers.

The step that matters

Pour in the strong stock to fill the mold. The stock must fill the gaps between layers so the cake sets solid. Gelatin in the stock firms as it cools, so the cake holds together when turned out. Cooling fully before unmolding prevents it from breaking apart.

“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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