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Meat Cake, Moulded

A molded cake of veal and ham with egg yolks, parsley, mace, pepper, and stock, baked at 300°F.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 8 ingredients
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Why it works: Parsley and pepper 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 ↓

Meat Cake, Moulded

Oven, in the book's wordsA gentle oven

Ingredients

Directions

The book says “a gentle oven”. The 300°F (150°C) in the steps is the modern equivalent, not the book's own figure.

Prepare

  1. Pound the veal and ham to a paste in a mortar.

  2. Mince the parsley and season it with mace and pepper.

  3. Butter a mold.

Assemble

  1. Lay halved egg yolks at the bottom of the mold.

  2. Sprinkle some parsley over the yolks.

  3. Add a layer of the pounded meat, moistened with stock or gravy.

  4. Arrange more egg yolks.

  5. Fill with remaining meat and seasoning.

  6. Dot the top with bits of butter.

Bake and serve

  1. Bake in a gentle oven at 300°F (150°C) for about 45 minutes.

  2. Let the cake cool in the mold before removing.

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. Parsley + peppertop 2% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together34,122 recipes

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

  2. Parsley + macetop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together4,268 recipes

    Shared aroma: myristicin (spice, warm).

  3. Parsley + buttertop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together28,563 recipes

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

  4. Veal + hamtop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together3,264 recipes

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

  5. Mace + peppertop 16% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together12,257 recipes

    Shared aroma: myristicin (spice, warm).

Mace and pepper barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 12,257 recipes: they work on texture and structure more than aroma.

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

What each ingredient does

Roast veal
Forms the main body of the cake, setting into a firm, sliceable meat mass when pounded and baked.
Lean ham
Adds savory flavor and body to the pounded meat mixture.
Hard-boiled eggs
Provide a firm, pale contrast in the layers that holds shape when sliced.
Parsley
Adds fresh herbal aroma and a green flecking through the meat layers.
Stock or gravy
Moistens the pounded meat so the cake stays tender and cohesive as it bakes.

The step that matters

Bake in a gentle oven. Meat proteins set and toughen at high heat, so a low oven at 300°F keeps the cake tender and prevents it from drying out or becoming rubbery.

Swap the mace

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (veal, ham, egg, parsley, pepper, butter):

  1. Tarragonfits better
  2. Thymefits better
  3. Marjoramfits better
  4. Macethe original

Fit is the average pairing score against veal, ham, egg, parsley, pepper, 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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