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Veal Loaf

A loaf of veal, ham, and pork fat mixed with corn flour and seasonings, baked until cooked.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 12 ingredients
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Why it works: Sage and clove match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 5% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 731 recipes. Both carry eucalyptol, which smells eucalyptus, herbal. 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 the meat

  1. Chop the veal, ham, and pork back fat finely.

  2. Mix the meats with corn flour or cracker meal and the seasoning.

  3. Add cold water.

  4. Keep the mixture cold until ready to bake.

Bake

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

  2. Transfer the mixture into loaf pans.

  3. Brush the tops with beaten egg whites.

  4. Bake for 2 to 2½ hours, or until a skewer comes out clean.

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. Sage + clovetop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together731 recipes

    Shared aroma: eucalyptol (eucalyptus, herbal).

  2. Pork + corntop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,069 recipes

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

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

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

  4. Pork + sagetop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,527 recipes

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

  5. Corn + clovetop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together712 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl cinnamate (sweet, balsamic).

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

What each ingredient does

Solid lean veal
Provides the main meat structure and firm, sliceable texture once cooked.
Pork back fat
Adds fat that melts during baking, keeping the loaf moist and tender.
Corn flour or cracker meal
Absorbs liquid and binds the meat so the loaf holds its shape when sliced.
Cold water
Adds moisture that steams into the meat, keeping the loaf juicy during baking.
Egg whites
Brushed on top, they set and brown into a glossy, lightly crisp surface.

The step that matters

Keep the mixture cold until ready to bake. Cold fat stays in solid pieces until the oven heats it. If the mixture warms, the fat can melt out early, leaving the loaf dry and crumbly once baked.

Swap the white pepper

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (veal, ham, pork, corn, sage, sugar, clove):

  1. Marjoramfits better
  2. Allspicefits better
  3. Nutmegfits better
  4. White pepperthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against veal, ham, pork, corn, sage, sugar, clove. 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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