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Minced Veal

A loaf of finely chopped veal seasoned with pepper, salt, nutmeg, and crackers, baked until moist.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 9 ingredients
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Why it works: Butter and milk are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 7% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 81,283 recipes. Both carry (z)-4-heptenal, which smells biscuit, cream. The science ↓

Minced 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

  1. Preheat the oven to 350°F (175°C).

Shape the loaf

  1. In a large bowl, combine the veal, pepper, salt, nutmeg, rolled crackers, butter, and beaten eggs, mixing until well combined and formed into a loaf shape.

  2. Dust the loaf with flour and place it in a greased baking dish.

  3. Add milk to the dish to keep the meat moist.

Bake and serve

  1. Bake for 2 hours, basting often.

  2. Allow to cool, then slice and serve cold.

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. Butter + milktop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together81,283 recipes

    Shared aroma: (z)-4-heptenal (biscuit, cream).

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

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

  3. Nutmeg + flourtop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together18,623 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  4. Butter + flourtop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together124,287 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  5. Flour + milktop 14% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together78,219 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

Butter and flour barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 124,287 recipes: they work on texture and structure more than aroma.

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 provides the savory meaty flavor.
Eggs
Bind the meat and set during baking to hold the loaf together.
Crackers
Absorb moisture and help the loaf hold its shape as it binds with the meat.
Butter
Adds fat, which keeps the cooked meat tender and rich.
Milk
Adds moisture to the dish so the meat stays juicy while baking.

The step that matters

Bake for 2 hours, basting often. Veal is lean and can dry out over a long bake. Regular basting keeps the surface moist, and the added milk in the dish helps the meat stay juicy as the proteins set.

Swap the nutmeg

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

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

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