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Veal Cheese

A baked veal and salt pork patty bound with eggs, biscuits, and herbs, topped with egg white, breadcrumbs, and butter.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 11 ingredients
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Why it works: Thyme and nutmeg match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 3% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 1,907 recipes. Both carry beta-phellandrene, which smells minty, terpene. The science ↓

Veal Cheese

Oven, in the book's wordsA moderate oven

Ingredients

Directions

The book says “a moderate oven”. The 350°F (175°C) in the steps is the modern equivalent, not the book's own figure.

Prepare the mixture

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

  2. Combine veal, salt pork, crushed soda biscuits, beaten eggs, thyme, nutmeg, pepper, and salt in a large bowl, then mix well with your hands.

  3. Mold the mixture into a round shape and place it in a baking pan.

Top and bake

  1. Brush the top with egg white, dust with bread crumbs, and place a piece of butter on top of the bread crumbs.

  2. Bake for about 2 hours.

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. Thyme + nutmegtop 3% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together1,907 recipes

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

  2. Thyme + peppertop 4% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together11,585 recipes

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

  3. Biscuit + nutmegtop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together368 recipes

    Shared aroma: maltol (caramel, sweet).

  4. Nutmeg + peppertop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together13,015 recipes

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

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

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

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

What each ingredient does

Veal
Forms the main body of the patty, giving it its meaty structure and substance.
Eggs
Bind the mixture together so it holds its shape when baked and sliced.
Soda biscuits
Absorb moisture and add body, helping keep the patty tender rather than dry.
Salt pork
Adds fat and richness, keeping the lean veal moist during baking.
Bread crumbs
Form a dry crust on top that helps the surface brown during baking.

The step that matters

Mold the mixture into a round shape. The mixture is soft and loosely bound, so it needs to be packed firmly and evenly. A dense, even shape holds together when baked and cuts cleanly instead of crumbling.

Swap the thyme

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

  1. Marjoramfits better
  2. Parsleyfits about as well
  3. Sagefits about as well
  4. Thymethe original

Fit is the average pairing score against veal, pork, biscuit, egg, nutmeg, pepper, bread. 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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