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Veal Loaf

A loaf of ground veal mixed with butter, eggs, cream, crackers, pepper, salt, and sage, 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).

Mix the loaf

  1. In a large bowl, mix the eggs with the cream and beat well.

  2. Add the ground veal, butter, rolled crackers, pepper, salt, and sage to the egg mixture.

  3. Combine all ingredients thoroughly.

  4. Transfer the mixture to a loaf tin.

Bake

  1. Bake for 1.5 hours, basting often.

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

Ground veal
Forms the main body of the loaf and supplies the meaty structure.
Eggs
Bind the mixture and set as it bakes, giving the loaf its firm structure.
Butter
Adds fat for richness and moistness in the finished loaf.
Cream
Adds moisture and tenderness, keeping the loaf from drying out.
Crackers
Absorb liquid and add binding so the loaf holds together when sliced.

The step that matters

Basting often during the 1.5-hour bake. Veal is lean, so regular basting with the melting fat and juices helps keep the surface and interior moist. Without it, the loaf can dry out over a long bake.

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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