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Veal Loaf

A loaf of veal mixed with ham or bacon, spices, crumbs, eggs, cream, and butter, baked and served with watercress and stewed cauliflower.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 11 ingredients
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Why it works: Summer savory and allspice share more aroma than cooks usually use. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 52 recipes. Both carry estragole, which smells anise, licorice. The science ↓

Veal Loaf

Oven, in the book's wordsA moderate oven

Ingredients

Directions

The book says “a moderate oven”. The 350°F (175°C) in the steps is the modern equivalent, not the book's own figure.

Prepare the mixture

  1. Mix the chopped veal and ham or bacon in a bowl.

  2. Add black pepper, salt, onion juice, summer savory, allspice, and bread or cracker crumbs; stir well.

  3. Beat the eggs until light, then add cream and melted butter.

  4. Combine the egg mixture with the meat mixture and mix thoroughly.

Shape and bake

  1. Press the mixture into a mold that has been wet with cold water.

  2. Carefully turn the mold onto a flat baking pan.

  3. Bake in a 350°F (175°C) oven for one hour, basting frequently.

Serve

  1. Serve on a hot platter, garnished with watercress and stewed cauliflower.

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. Summer savory + allspicetop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together52 recipes

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

  2. Pepper + allspicetop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together6,395 recipes

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

  3. Pepper + summer savorytop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together671 recipes

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

  4. Onion + summer savorytop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together299 recipes

    Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).

  5. Ham + breadtop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,536 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-acetyl-1-pyrroline (popcorn, roasted).

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, sliceable structure when cooked.
Ham or bacon
Adds fat and savory flavour, keeping the loaf moist as it cooks.
Eggs
Bind the meat together and set during baking to hold the loaf's shape.
Bread or cracker crumbs
Absorb moisture and help keep the loaf tender rather than dense.
Cream
Adds moisture and richness, softening the texture of the loaf.

The step that matters

Turning the mold onto the baking pan. The loaf is still soft and held together only by the set egg and crumb binder, so it must be unmolded carefully or it can break apart.

Swap the onion

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (veal, ham, pepper, summer savory, allspice, bread, egg):

  1. Capsicumfits better
  2. Mustardfits better
  3. Carrotfits better
  4. Onionthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against veal, ham, pepper, summer savory, allspice, bread, egg. 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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