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Veal Omelet

A baked loaf of veal, pork, eggs, milk, crackers, and spices.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 9 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 Omelet

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).

Make and shape the loaf

  1. In a large bowl, mix veal, pork, eggs, milk, crackers, pepper, salt, and sage until well combined.

  2. Shape the mixture into a loaf and place it in a baking dish.

Bake

  1. Bake for 2 hours, basting often with melted butter and water.

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. Milk + buttertop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together81,283 recipes

    Shared aroma: (z)-4-heptenal (biscuit, cream).

  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. Pork + milktop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together4,386 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 loaf and gives it a firm, meaty texture.
Pork
Adds fat and moisture so the loaf stays juicy rather than dry.
Eggs
Bind the chopped meats together and help the loaf hold its shape as it sets.
Boston crackers
Absorb juices and add body, helping the loaf hold together and stay tender.

The step that matters

Basting during the 2-hour bake. Basting with melted butter and water adds moisture to the surface as the meat cooks, helping prevent the loaf from drying out during the long bake.

Swap the sage

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

  1. Parsleyfits about as well
  2. Nutmegfits about as well
  3. Sagethe original
  4. Thymefits about as well

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