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Veal Loaf

A loaf of seasoned veal mixed with breadcrumbs and eggs, baked until cooked.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
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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).

  2. Grease a loaf pan with butter.

Mix and bake

  1. In a large bowl, combine the chopped veal, bread crumbs, eggs, salt, pepper, and sage, and mix well until all ingredients are combined.

  2. Pour the mixture into the greased pan.

  3. Bake for about 1 hour or until cooked through.

Serve

  1. Remove from the oven and let cool slightly before slicing thin.

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. Bread + buttertop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together27,232 recipes

    Shared aroma: delta-decalactone (sweet, creamy).

  3. Bread + eggtop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together22,662 recipes

    Shared aroma: (e)-2-octenal (fatty, green).

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

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

  5. Bread + sagetop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,778 recipes

    Shared aroma: eucalyptol (eucalyptus, herbal).

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.
Bread crumbs
Absorb moisture and help the loaf hold together with a tender crumb.
Eggs
Bind the mixture and set during baking to give the loaf structure.

The step that matters

Let the loaf cool slightly before slicing. As the loaf cools, its proteins finish setting and the juices settle, so slices hold their shape instead of crumbling or falling apart.

Swap the sage

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

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

Fit is the average pairing score against veal, bread, egg, 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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