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Jellied Veal

Jellied veal is a chilled roast veal mixture set with its own cooking water.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 9 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

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

  2. Place the chopped veal in a mold and add the water it was boiled in.

  3. Season with salt and pepper to taste, and add a layer of hard-boiled eggs if desired.

  4. In a bowl, mix the veal with nutmeg, rolled crackers, eggs, and butter (if using).

Shape and bake

  1. Form the mixture into a large roll and dot with bits of butter.

  2. Sprinkle the remaining crushed crackers over the roll.

  3. Place the roll in a 300 °F (150 °C) oven, adding a little water occasionally.

  4. Cook slowly for two hours, then let it cool and slice thin.

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 sets into a firm, sliceable mass as it cools.
Eggs
Bind the mixture and help it set firm when cooked and chilled.
Rolled crackers
Absorb liquid and help bind the mixture into a cohesive roll.
Butter
Adds richness and moisture to the lean veal.

The step that matters

Cook slowly at low heat with added water. Low, slow heat keeps the lean veal tender and prevents it from drying out or toughening, while occasional added water maintains moisture in the oven.

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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