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Lemon Veal

A baked pie of finely chopped veal, salt pork, onion, lemon, eggs, and tomato sauce, topped with lemon slices and cracker crumbs.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 10 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 ↓

Lemon Veal

Oven, in the book's wordsA good oven

Ingredients

Directions

The book says “a good oven”. The 400°F (200°C) in the steps is the modern equivalent, not the book's own figure.

Prepare the filling

  1. In a bowl, combine veal, salt pork, onion, lemon peel, eggs, and tomato sauce.

  2. Stir in enough cracker crumbs to mold the mixture with your hands.

  3. Press the mixture firmly into a bowl.

Shape and bake

  1. Invert the mixture onto a pie dish, removing the bowl carefully.

  2. Sift cracker crumbs thickly over the top and cover with lemon slices.

  3. Bake for 1 hour at 400°F (200°C).

  4. Remove the lemon slices carefully and brown the top on the upper rack of the oven.

  5. Serve in the pie dish.

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. Tomato + peppertop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together17,923 recipes

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

  3. Onion + tomatotop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together20,633 recipes

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

  4. Pork + oniontop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together18,214 recipes

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

  5. Pork + tomatotop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together4,843 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 main body of the pie, giving it substance and a meaty texture when cooked.
Eggs
Bind the mixture and help it set firm as it bakes.
Salt pork
Adds fat that keeps the lean veal moist and adds savory richness.
Cracker crumbs
Absorb moisture so the mixture can be molded, and add structure to the pie.
Tomato sauce
Adds moisture, acidity and savory flavor to the filling.
Lemons
Add bright acidity and aroma that flavor the pie's top layer.

The step that matters

Remove the lemon slices carefully and brown the top on the upper rack of the oven.. Lemon slices can tear or break apart when lifted from the cooked surface, so handling them gently keeps the top neat. Browning on the upper rack, close to the heat, promotes Maillard browning of the crumbs and surface for color and flavor.

Swap the lemon

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (veal, pork, onion, egg, tomato, sauce, pepper):

  1. Avocadofits better
  2. Lemonthe original
  3. Limefits about as well
  4. Cherryfits about as well

Fit is the average pairing score against veal, pork, onion, egg, tomato, sauce, pepper. 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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