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Veal Loaf

A loaf of veal and pork mixed with crackers, herbs, and eggs, baked in a pan with water.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 8 ingredients
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Why it works: Thyme and parsley match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 9,057 recipes. Both carry cuminaldehyde, which smells Spicy, cumin. 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, crushed crackers, black pepper, salt, thyme, parsley, and eggs until well combined.

  3. Pack the mixture firmly into an oblong loaf shape.

Bake

  1. Place the loaf in a baking pan with water at the bottom.

  2. Bake for 1.5 to 2 hours, basting occasionally with the liquid from the pan.

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. Thyme + parsleytop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together9,057 recipes

    Shared aroma: cuminaldehyde (Spicy, cumin).

  2. Pepper + parsleytop 2% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together34,122 recipes

    Shared aroma: 4'-methylacetophenone (bitter almond).

  3. Pepper + thymetop 4% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together11,585 recipes

    Shared aroma: beta-phellandrene (minty, terpene).

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

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

  5. Pork + thymetop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together4,108 recipes

    Shared aroma: 1-octen-3-one (mushroom, metallic).

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

What each ingredient does

Veal
Provides the main meaty body and structure of the loaf.
Fresh pork
Adds fat and moisture, keeping the loaf from drying out as it bakes.
Crackers
Absorb liquid and bind the meat so the loaf holds its shape when sliced.
Eggs
Bind the mixture together and help it set firm when baked.

The step that matters

Packing the mixture firmly into the loaf shape. Firm packing removes air pockets and holds the ground meat together, so the loaf slices cleanly instead of crumbling. Loose packing lets the proteins separate and leaves gaps where juices collect.

Swap the thyme

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

  1. Marjoramfits about as well
  2. Sagefits about as well
  3. Thymethe original
  4. Tarragonfits about as well

Fit is the average pairing score against veal, pork, pepper, parsley, 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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