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Veal Loaf

A loaf of seasoned minced veal baked with butter and cracker crumbs.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 6 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. Season the minced veal with pepper, sage, and coarse sea salt. Mix well and pack tightly into a deep tin pan.

  2. Dot the top with bits of butter and sprinkle fine cracker crumbs over it.

Bake and serve

  1. Cover with another tin and bake at 350°F (175°C) for nearly two hours.

  2. Uncover and brown the top before serving.

  3. Serve cold, cut into thin slices.

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

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

  3. Sage + buttertop 17% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together3,312 recipes

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

  4. Veal + peppertop 19% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together10,049 recipes

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

  5. Pepper + buttertop 21% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together85,593 recipes

    Shared aroma: trans-2-nonenal (cardboard, fatty).

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

What each ingredient does

Minced veal
Forms the main body of the loaf and sets firm as it bakes.
Butter
Adds richness and moisture, and helps the top brown.
Fine cracker crumbs
Adds a light crust on top and helps absorb juices.

The step that matters

Pack the veal tightly into the pan. Packing removes air pockets so the loaf holds together when sliced. Loose packing can leave gaps and crumbly slices.

Swap the sage

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

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

Fit is the average pairing score against veal, 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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