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Veal Loaf

A loaf made from finely chopped veal, crackers, eggs, butter, pork, sage, salt, and pepper, baked until cooked.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 8 ingredients
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Why it works: Pepper and sage match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 3% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 5,388 recipes. Both carry beta-phellandrene, which smells minty, terpene. 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. Preheat the oven to 350°F (175°C).

  2. In a large bowl, mix the veal, crushed crackers, eggs, butter, salt, pepper, chopped pork, and sage until well combined.

  3. Transfer the mixture to a loaf pan and shape it.

Bake

  1. Bake for 2 hours.

  2. In the last 10 minutes, brush the yolk of 1 egg over the top and sprinkle with powdered cracker.

  3. If it bakes too fast, add a little water to the pan.

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 + sagetop 3% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together5,388 recipes

    Shared aroma: beta-phellandrene (minty, terpene).

  2. Veal + porktop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together4,930 recipes

    Shared aroma: 4-heptenal (creamy, biscuit).

  3. Pork + sagetop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,527 recipes

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

  4. Butter + porktop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together13,933 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-furfurylthiol (coffee, roasted).

  5. Veal + sagetop 14% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together670 recipes

    Shared aroma: 3-hexenal (apple, fruity).

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 loaf, giving it a firm, sliceable texture when cooked.
Crackers
Absorb juices and help bind the meat so the loaf holds together when sliced.
Eggs
Bind the mixture and set during baking, holding the loaf's shape.
Butter
Adds fat and richness, keeping the lean meat moist as it cooks.
Pork
Adds fat and flavour to the lean veal, contributing to a moister loaf.

The step that matters

Watching the bake temperature. If the loaf bakes too fast, the outside can dry and brown before the centre sets. Adding a little water to the pan adds moisture and slows the cooking.

Swap the sage

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

  1. Parsleyfits about as well
  2. Sagethe original
  3. Thymefits less well
  4. Nutmegfits less well

Fit is the average pairing score against veal, egg, butter, pepper, pork. 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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