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Veal Loaf

A baked loaf made from chopped veal, bread crumbs, eggs, butter, sugar, salt, and pepper.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
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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 Loaf

Oven, in the book's wordsA hot oven

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

  1. Preheat the oven to 400°F (200°C).

Mix and shape

  1. In a large bowl, combine the chopped veal, bread crumbs, beaten eggs, salt, pepper, sugar, and butter. Mix all ingredients together well.

  2. Transfer the mixture to a well-buttered earthen pudding dish and press it down firmly.

Bake and serve

  1. Bake in the preheated oven for 1 hour.

  2. Once fully cooked, let it cool completely before slicing into thin pieces.

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. Bread + buttertop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together27,232 recipes

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

  2. Bread + eggtop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together22,662 recipes

    Shared aroma: (e)-2-octenal (fatty, green).

  3. Bread + peppertop 16% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together20,964 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).

  4. Veal + breadtop 17% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together3,056 recipes

    Shared aroma: cis-3-hexenol (green, grassy).

  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
Provides the main body and meaty texture of the loaf.
Bread crumbs
Absorb moisture and help the loaf hold together with a tender texture.
Eggs
Bind the mixture and set during baking to give the loaf structure.
Butter
Adds fat and richness, keeping the loaf moist and flavorful.

The step that matters

Let the loaf cool completely before slicing. As the loaf cools, the egg proteins and starches finish setting, so it firms up. Slicing it while hot can cause it to crumble or fall apart.

“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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