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Veal Cake

A chilled veal cake layered with eggs, bacon, anchovies, and spices, baked then cooled and served with optional sauces.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 17 ingredients
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Why it works: Nutmeg and clove match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 8,686 recipes. Both carry estragole, which smells anise, licorice. The science ↓

Veal Cake

Oven, in the book's wordsA moderate oven

Ingredients

Directions

The book says “a moderate oven”. The 350°F (175°C) in the steps is the modern equivalent, not the book's own figure.

Prepare

  1. Bone the breast of veal and cut it into three parts.

  2. Season the veal with cayenne pepper, white pepper, nutmeg, mace, cloves, and coarse sea salt.

  3. Mince parsley and two anchovies.

  4. Sprinkle the mixture over the veal.

Layer and bake

  1. Layer the veal in a basin with slices of hard-boiled eggs and bacon, alternating layers.

  2. Add a large slice of butter.

  3. Cover with veal and press down.

  4. Place the bones on top to keep it moist.

  5. Bake in a 350°F (175°C) oven for four hours.

  6. Remove the bones.

  7. Press the mixture to solidify.

Finish and serve

  1. Garnish with aspic jelly and parsley.

  2. Serve with cold sauce, vinegar, mustard, and sugar if desired.

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. Nutmeg + clovetop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together8,686 recipes

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

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

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

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

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

  4. Nutmeg + macetop 4% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together6,557 recipes

    Shared aroma: myristicin (spice, warm).

  5. Pepper + clovetop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together17,451 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl octanoate (fruity, wine).

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

What each ingredient does

Veal breast
Forms the bulk of the cake and sets into firm, sliceable meat when pressed and chilled.
Hard-boiled eggs
Add structure and a firm, sliced appearance inside the layers.
Bacon
Adds fat and savory flavor that moistens the lean veal as it bakes.
Butter
Adds richness and moisture to the layered meat during baking.
Anchovies
Contribute a deep, salty savory note that enhances the meat's flavor.

The step that matters

Place the bones on top to keep it moist. Lean veal dries out during the long bake, and the bones shield the surface and help retain moisture, so placing them correctly protects the texture of the finished cake.

Swap the white pepper

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

  1. Allspicefits better
  2. Marjoramfits better
  3. Cinnamonfits better
  4. White pepperthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against veal, pepper, nutmeg, mace, clove, parsley, egg. 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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