Skip to main content
Main

Spiced Veal

A loaf of spiced veal mixed with crackers, tomatoes, eggs, and butter, baked slowly.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 10 ingredients
Jump to recipe ↓

Why it works: Pepper and lemon match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 3% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 27,047 recipes. Both carry trans-2-nonenal, which smells cardboard, fatty. The science ↓

Spiced Veal

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 the loaf

  1. Chop the veal steak and salt pork as finely as sausage meat.

  2. Add the rolled crackers, tomato catsup, beaten eggs, salt, pepper, and grated lemon.

  3. Mold the mixture into the shape of a loaf.

Bake

  1. Place the loaf in a small dripping pan and cover it with rolled crackers.

  2. Baste the loaf with hot water and butter.

  3. Bake at 350 °F (175 °C) for 3 hours, basting often.

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 + lemontop 3% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together27,047 recipes

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

  2. Tomato + peppertop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together17,923 recipes

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

  3. Pork + tomatotop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together4,843 recipes

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

  4. Tomato + lemontop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together4,592 recipes

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

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

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

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

What each ingredient does

Veal steak
Forms the main body of the loaf and gives it a meaty, sliceable texture.
Eggs
Bind the mixture together and help the loaf hold its shape as it sets.
Boston crackers
Absorb moisture and add bulk, helping the loaf stay tender rather than dry.
Salt pork
Adds fat and richness, keeping the lean veal moist during baking.
Tomato catsup
Adds acidity and sweetness, contributing flavor and some browning on the surface.

The step that matters

Basting the loaf during baking. Veal is lean, so it dries out easily over a long bake. Regular basting with butter and hot water adds moisture and fat to the surface, helping keep the loaf juicy and promoting even browning.

Swap the tomato

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

  1. Capsicumfits better
  2. Asparagusfits better
  3. Potatofits better
  4. Tomatothe original

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

You might also like

Tomato SoupTomato Soup526 recipesLemon SauceLemon Sauce236 recipesCream of Tomato SoupCream of Tomato Soup107 recipesPork CakePork Cake107 recipes