Why it works: Bread and butter are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 7% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 27,232 recipes. Both carry delta-decalactone, which smells sweet, creamy. The science ↓
Veal Pates
Ingredients
Directions
The book says “a hot oven”. The 400°F (200°C) in the steps is the modern equivalent, not the book's own figure.
Prepare the patties
Chop the cold veal finely.
Moisten the veal with cream and the beaten egg.
Season with coarse sea salt, sweet marjoram, and powdered mace.
Shape the mixture into cones or patty-cakes using your hands.
Roll the shaped patties in bread crumbs.
Cook
Fry in a buttered pan or bake in a hot oven at 400°F (200°C).
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.
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Bread + buttertop 7% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together27,232 recipes
Shared aroma: delta-decalactone (sweet, creamy).
-
Cream + buttertop 8% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together41,516 recipes
Shared aroma: delta-dodecalactone (sweet, creamy).
-
Marjoram + macetop 12% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together767 recipes
Shared aroma: methyleugenol (clove, spice).
-
Egg + breadtop 13% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together22,662 recipes
Shared aroma: (e)-2-octenal (fatty, green).
-
Marjoram + breadtop 14% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together1,008 recipes
Shared aroma: ethyl decanoate (grape, waxy).
Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs
What each ingredient does
- Cold veal
- Forms the main body of the patties and gives them their meaty flavor.
- Cream
- Adds moisture so the chopped veal stays tender rather than dry.
- Egg
- Binds the mixture so the patties hold their shape when cooked.
- Bread crumbs
- Forms a crisp outer coating that browns during frying or baking.
- Butter
- Adds fat for frying, promoting browning and a rich flavor.
The step that matters
Shaping and coating the patties. The mixture is soft and moist, so it can fall apart if handled roughly. Firm, even shaping and an even bread crumb coating help the patties hold together and brown evenly in the pan or oven.
Swap the marjoram
How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (veal, cream, egg, mace, bread, butter):
- Nutmegfits better
- Parsleyfits better
- Sagefits about as well
- Marjoramthe original
Fit is the average pairing score against veal, cream, egg, mace, bread, 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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