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Veal and Ham Shape

A steamed shape of veal and ham served with a lemon‑vinegar dressing.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 11 ingredients
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Why it works: Lemon and pepper match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 3% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 27,047 recipes. Both carry trans-2-nonenal, which smells cardboard, fatty. The science ↓

Veal and Ham Shape

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the tin

  1. Grease a small souffle tin.

  2. Arrange sliced egg on the bottom of the tin.

Layer and steam

  1. Layer veal and ham in the tin, sprinkling each layer with salt, pepper, mace, and grated lemon rind.

  2. Steam for at least 1 hour.

  3. Fill the tin with jellied stock.

  4. Place a weight on top and refrigerate until cold.

Serve

  1. Serve on a bed of lettuce sprinkled with a mixture of lemon juice, vinegar, and seasoning.

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. Lemon + peppertop 3% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together27,047 recipes

    Shared aroma: trans-2-nonenal (cardboard, fatty).

  2. Pepper + lettucetop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together4,037 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).

  3. Lemon + lettucetop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together1,559 recipes

    Shared aroma: trans-2-hexenal (green, leafy).

  4. Pepper + vinegartop 14% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together27,814 recipes

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

  5. Lettuce + vinegartop 14% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,370 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

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

What each ingredient does

Sliced fillet of veal
Forms the main meaty layers that set firm and tender after steaming.
Ham
Adds savoury flavour and a contrasting layer within the set shape.
Jellied stock
Fills the tin and sets when cold, binding the layers into a firm shape.
Egg slices
Form a neat, sliced layer on the base that shows when the shape is turned out.

The step that matters

Place a weight on top and refrigerate until cold. Pressing the shape while it cools helps the jellied stock set evenly and bind the layers so the shape holds together when turned out and sliced.

Swap the mace

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (veal, ham, lemon, pepper, egg, lettuce, vinegar):

  1. Tarragonfits better
  2. Parsleyfits better
  3. Capersfits better
  4. Macethe original

Fit is the average pairing score against veal, ham, lemon, pepper, egg, lettuce, vinegar. 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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