Skip to main content
Main

Veal Loaf

A baked loaf made from veal, salt pork, crackers, spices, eggs, and cream.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 10 ingredients
Jump to recipe ↓

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. Chop the veal and salt pork together with the crackers, pepper, sage, and salt.

  2. Add the eggs and cream, mixing well.

  3. Shape the mixture into a loaf.

Bake

  1. Bake at 350°F (175°C) for 3 hours, basting often with a mixture of butter and water.

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. Cream + buttertop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together41,516 recipes

    Shared aroma: delta-dodecalactone (sweet, creamy).

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

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

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

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

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

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

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 a meaty, savory texture.
Salt pork
Adds fat that keeps the loaf moist and flavorful as it bakes.
Crackers
Absorb moisture and help bind the mixture so the loaf holds its shape.
Eggs
Bind the mixture and set during baking, giving the loaf structure.
Cream
Adds moisture and richness, keeping the loaf tender.

The step that matters

Basting during the 3-hour bake. Veal is lean, so it can dry out over a long bake. Regular basting with butter and water keeps the surface moist and helps it brown evenly.

Swap the sage

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

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

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

More veal loaf recipes

Spiced 11Creole 3 See all 380 →

You might also like

Pork CakePork Cake107 recipesRoast PorkRoast Pork82 recipesVeal PattiesVeal Patties50 recipesBeef, Mutton, or Veal BrothBeef, Mutton, or Veal Broth6 recipes