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Jellied Veal

A chilled veal dish set in a gelatinous stock, often served sliced as a relish.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 9 ingredients
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Why it works: Pepper and nutmeg match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 7% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 13,015 recipes. Both carry 4'-methylacetophenone, which smells bitter almond. The science ↓

Jellied Veal

Ingredients

Directions

The book gives no oven temperature. The 300°F (150°C) in the steps was added when the recipe was transcribed, as a starting point.

Prepare the veal

  1. Boil the veal until tender, then chop it finely.

  2. Place the chopped veal in a mold and add the water it was boiled in.

  3. Season with salt and pepper to taste.

  4. If desired, add a layer of hard-boiled eggs for extra flavor.

  5. Form the mixture into a large roll and dot with bits of butter.

  6. Sprinkle pounded crackers over the roll, mixing a little with the meat.

Bake and serve

  1. Place in a 300°F (150°C) oven, adding water occasionally.

  2. Cook slowly for 2 hours.

  3. Once cooled, slice thinly and serve as a relish.

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 + nutmegtop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together13,015 recipes

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

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

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

  3. Nutmeg + creamtop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together7,920 recipes

    Shared aroma: acetic acid (sour, vinegar).

  4. Nutmeg + buttertop 16% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together24,377 recipes

    Shared aroma: eucalyptol (eucalyptus, herbal).

  5. Egg + buttertop 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

Veal
Forms the main body of the dish, setting into a firm, sliceable mass as it cools.
Eggs
Add richness and firmness when sliced hard-boiled and layered through the roll.
Butter
Adds fat and moisture, enriching the meat as it bakes.
Crackers
Absorb liquid and help bind the chopped meat into a cohesive roll.

The step that matters

Cook slowly with added water. Low, slow heat at 300°F keeps the chopped meat tender and moist rather than dry and tough. Adding water occasionally replenishes moisture lost during the long bake, and the natural gelatin from the veal sets the dish as it cools.

Swap the nutmeg

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

  1. Nutmegthe original
  2. Parsleyfits about as well
  3. Tarragonfits less well
  4. Sagefits less well

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