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Veal Loaf

A loaf made from finely chopped veal, salt pork, eggs, crackers, and seasonings, 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).

Make and shape the loaf

  1. In a large bowl, combine the veal, salt pork, eggs, crackers, salt, pepper, sugar, and sage. Mix well until all ingredients are thoroughly combined.

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

Bake

  1. Bake for 2 hours, pressing down occasionally.

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

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

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

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

  4. Veal + sagetop 14% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together670 recipes

    Shared aroma: 3-hexenal (apple, fruity).

  5. Pork + peppertop 16% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together22,121 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).

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 its meaty texture.
Salt pork
Adds fat, which keeps the loaf moist and adds flavor during baking.
Eggs
Bind the mixture so the loaf holds its shape when sliced.
Pounded crackers
Absorb moisture and help bind the loaf while adding body.

The step that matters

Pressing the loaf into shape. The mixture must be packed firmly so it holds together when baked and sliced. Loose packing lets the loaf crumble and dry unevenly as the eggs and crackers set.

Swap the sage

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

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

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