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Jellied Veal

A baked roll of finely chopped veal mixed with salt, pepper, nutmeg, crackers, eggs, butter, and cream, set in a jelly.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 8 ingredients
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Why it works: Pepper and nutmeg match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 7% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 13,015 recipes. Both carry 4'-methylacetophenone, which smells bitter almond. The science ↓

Jellied Veal

Ingredients

Directions

The book gives no oven temperature. The 300°F (150°C) in the steps was added when the recipe was transcribed, as a starting point.

Prepare the veal

  1. Boil the veal until tender, then chop it finely.

Shape and bake

  1. In a bowl, combine the veal with salt, pepper, nutmeg, rolled crackers, eggs, and butter (if using).

  2. Form the mixture into a large roll and place it in a baking dish.

  3. Dot the roll with bits of butter and sprinkle with pounded crackers.

  4. Bake in a 300°F (150°C) oven for 2 hours, adding a little water as needed.

Serve

  1. Once cooled, slice thinly and serve as a relish.

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 + nutmegtop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together13,015 recipes

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

  2. Butter + creamtop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together41,516 recipes

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

  3. Nutmeg + creamtop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together7,920 recipes

    Shared aroma: acetic acid (sour, vinegar).

  4. Nutmeg + buttertop 16% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together24,377 recipes

    Shared aroma: eucalyptol (eucalyptus, herbal).

  5. Egg + buttertop 17% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together118,967 recipes

    Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).

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

What each ingredient does

Veal
Forms the bulk of the dish and, once cooled, sets into a sliceable, firm texture.
Eggs
Bind the chopped veal and help the roll hold its shape as it sets.
Rolled crackers
Absorb moisture and add body, helping the mixture hold together while baking.
Butter
Adds richness and moisture to the roll as it bakes.

The step that matters

Baking with added water. Baking a dense veal roll at low heat can dry it out, so adding a little water as needed keeps it moist. Gelatin from the meat then sets the roll as it cools, which is why slicing must wait until it has cooled.

Swap the nutmeg

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

  1. Nutmegthe original
  2. Parsleyfits about as well
  3. Tarragonfits less well
  4. Sagefits less well

Fit is the average pairing score against veal, pepper, egg, butter, cream. 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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