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Veal Loaf

A loaf of veal mixed with pork fat, crackers, eggs, butter, pepper, clove, and herbs, baked slowly.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 8 ingredients
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Why it works: Pepper and clove match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 5% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 17,451 recipes. Both carry ethyl octanoate, which smells fruity, wine. The science ↓

Veal Loaf

Ingredients

Directions

The book gives no oven temperature. The 300°F (150°C) in the steps was added when the recipe was transcribed, as a starting point.

Prepare the loaf

  1. Chop the veal and salt pork together until raw.

  2. Mix in the pounded crackers, eggs, butter, pepper, clove, and herbs until well combined.

  3. Shape the mixture into a loaf and place it in a shallow baking pan with a little water.

Bake and serve

  1. Cover the loaf with bits of butter and sprinkle flour over it.

  2. Bake at 300°F (150°C) for 2 hours, basting occasionally.

  3. Slice thinly to serve as a tea 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. Pepper + clovetop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together17,451 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl octanoate (fruity, wine).

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

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

  3. Pork + buttertop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together13,933 recipes

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

  4. Pork + clovetop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together4,515 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl octanoate (fruity, wine).

  5. Pork + peppertop 16% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together22,121 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 loaf and gives it its meaty structure.
Eggs
Bind the mixture together so the loaf holds its shape when sliced.
Crackers
Absorb moisture and help the loaf hold together as a binder.
Butter
Adds richness and moisture, keeping the lean meat from drying out.
Salt pork
Adds fat to the lean veal, contributing moisture and savory flavor.

The step that matters

Bake at 300°F (150°C) for 2 hours, basting occasionally. Gentle, moderate heat cooks the meat through slowly, while basting keeps the surface moist. Too high a heat would dry out the lean veal and make the loaf tough.

Swap the clove

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

  1. Parsleyfits better
  2. Sagefits better
  3. Thymefits better
  4. Clovethe original

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