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Veal Loaf

A loaf made from veal, pork, crackers, butter, eggs, water, salt, and pepper, baked with a cracker-butter topping.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 8 ingredients
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Why it works: Veal and pork are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 11% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 4,930 recipes. Both carry 4-heptenal, which smells creamy, biscuit. 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).

  2. In a large bowl, mix the veal, pork, rolled crackers, butter, beaten eggs, water, salt, and pepper until well combined.

  3. Form the mixture into a firm loaf shape and place it in a long, narrow pan.

  4. Top the loaf with the reserved cracker crumbs and butter.

Bake

  1. Add a little water to the pan and bake for 2.5 hours, basting occasionally with hot water and butter.

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

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

  2. Pork + buttertop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together13,933 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-furfurylthiol (coffee, roasted).

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

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

  4. Butter + eggtop 17% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together118,967 recipes

    Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).

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

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

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

What each ingredient does

Veal
Provides the main body of the loaf and its meaty, tender texture when cooked through.
Pork
Adds fat and moisture, keeping the loaf from drying out during the long bake.
Eggs
Bind the meat and crackers together so the loaf holds its shape when sliced.
Crackers
Absorb liquid and soften, helping the loaf stay moist and tender rather than dense.
Butter
Adds richness and fat, and browns the top of the loaf during baking.

The step that matters

Basting during the 2.5-hour bake. Long baking dries out lean meat. Adding a little liquid to the pan and basting with hot water and butter keeps the surface moist and the loaf juicy.

“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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