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Veal Loaf

A loaf made from cooked veal, bacon, eggs, and breadcrumbs.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 10 ingredients
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Why it works: Pepper and parsley match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 2% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 34,122 recipes. Both carry 4'-methylacetophenone, which smells bitter almond. The science ↓

Veal Loaf

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. Cook the veal until tender.

Mix and shape

  1. In a bowl, combine the cooked veal, bacon, hard boiled eggs, salt, pepper, nutmeg, onion, beaten eggs, cream, bread crumbs, and parsley. Mix well until all ingredients are combined.

  2. Shape the mixture into a loaf and place in a baking dish.

Bake

  1. Bake in a moderate oven at 350°F (175°C) until cooked through.

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 + parsleytop 2% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together34,122 recipes

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

  2. Nutmeg + parsleytop 3% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together5,062 recipes

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

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

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

  4. Onion + parsleytop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together25,843 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2,4-decadienal (seaweed).

  5. Pepper + oniontop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together68,474 recipes

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

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 loaf and gives it its main meaty texture.
Eggs
Bind the mixture together and help it set firm as it bakes.
Bacon
Adds fat and savory flavor that keeps the loaf moist.
Bread crumbs
Absorb liquid and help the loaf hold its shape with a tender crumb.
Cream
Adds moisture and richness, keeping the loaf from drying out.
Onion
Contributes aroma and savory sweetness to the loaf.

The step that matters

Mix until evenly combined. Uneven mixing leaves pockets of egg or crumb that set unevenly. Thorough mixing spreads the binders through the meat so the loaf slices cleanly and bakes uniformly.

Swap the onion

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (veal, egg, pepper, nutmeg, cream, bread, parsley):

  1. Spinachfits better
  2. Carrotfits better
  3. Shallotfits better
  4. Onionthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against veal, egg, pepper, nutmeg, cream, bread, parsley. 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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