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Veal Cake

A baked loaf of veal, ham, eggs, parsley, and stock.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
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Why it works: Parsley and pepper match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 2% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 34,122 recipes. Both carry 4'-methylacetophenone, which smells bitter almond. The science ↓

Veal Cake

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Remove the brown edges from the veal.

  2. Slice the hard-boiled eggs.

Assemble and bake

  1. In a mold, layer veal, ham, eggs, and parsley, adding a little pepper between each layer.

  2. Once the mold is full, pour in strong stock to fill it.

  3. Bake for 30 minutes, then let it cool before turning it out.

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 + peppertop 2% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together34,122 recipes

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

  2. Veal + hamtop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together3,264 recipes

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

  3. Ham + eggtop 17% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together4,526 recipes

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

  4. Veal + parsleytop 17% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together4,766 recipes

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

  5. Veal + peppertop 19% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together10,049 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).

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

What each ingredient does

Cold roast veal
Forms the main body of the cake, giving it bulk and meaty texture.
Cold ham
Adds savory flavor and a contrasting layer within the cake.
Hard-boiled eggs
Provide firm, sliced layers that hold their shape when the cake is turned out.
Good gravy or stock
Fills the mold so the layers set moist and bound together as they cool.

The step that matters

Let it cool before turning it out. Gelatin in the stock sets as the cake cools, holding the layers together. Turning it out too early can cause it to crumble or collapse.

“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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