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Veal Cake

A baked layered veal and ham cake topped with a gravy of isinglass and catsup.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 12 ingredients
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Why it works: Parsley and shallot match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 3,737 recipes. Both carry 2,4-decadienal, which smells seaweed. The science ↓

Veal Cake

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 the mold

  1. Grease a mold with butter.

Assemble and bake

  1. Layer thin slices of veal and ham in the mold.

  2. Season with cayenne, coarse sea salt, beaten mace, parsley, shallot, and hard-boiled egg slices.

  3. Press the mixture down firmly.

  4. Bake in a 350°F (175°C) oven until set.

Make the gravy and finish

  1. Make veal gravy by simmering shreds of isinglass in water, then strain it.

  2. Add a small quantity of catsup to the gravy.

  3. Pour the hot gravy over the veal cake.

  4. Once cooled, turn the cake out of the mold.

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 + shallottop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together3,737 recipes

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

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

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

  3. Pepper + shallottop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together5,898 recipes

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

  4. Mace + parsleytop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together4,268 recipes

    Shared aroma: myristicin (spice, warm).

  5. Butter + parsleytop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together28,563 recipes

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

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 cake and gives it its meaty structure when set.
Ham
Adds savoury flavour and fat that layers through the cake as it bakes.
Hard-boiled eggs
Add firmness and a sliced, set texture to the cut cake.
Isinglass
A gelatin-like agent that helps the gravy set and hold the cake together as it cools.

The step that matters

Press the mixture down firmly. Firm pressing removes air pockets and packs the layers together, so the cake holds its shape when turned out and sliced.

Swap the mace

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

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

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