Name: Veal Omelette
Ingredients: 2 pounds veal, chopped fine; ¼ pound salt pork, chopped fine; 1 teaspoon salt; 1 teaspoon pepper; 2 crackers, rolled fine; 2 eggs; 8 tablespoons cream (or 6 tablespoons melted butter)

Why it works: Veal and pork are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 11% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 4,930 recipes. Both carry 4-heptenal, which smells creamy, biscuit. The science ↓

Veal Omelette

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

Preheat your oven to 350°F (175°C).

Make the mixture

In a bowl, mix the veal, salt pork, and rolled crackers.
Add the eggs, salt, pepper, and cream (or melted butter) to the mixture.
Transfer the mixture to a baking dish and cover with a pan.

Bake

Bake for 2 hours.

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.

Veal + porktop 11% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together4,930 recipes

Shared aroma: 4-heptenal (creamy, biscuit).
Pork + creamtop 16% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together3,093 recipes

Shared aroma: 1-octen-3-one (mushroom, metallic).
Pork + peppertop 16% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together22,121 recipes

Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).
Veal + peppertop 19% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together10,049 recipes

Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).
Pepper + creamtop 23% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together21,449 recipes

Shared aroma: acetic acid (sour, vinegar).

Pepper and cream barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 21,449 recipes: they work on texture and structure more than aroma.

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 dish and gives it a firm, sliceable texture when cooked.
Salt pork: Adds fat and richness, keeping the lean veal moist during long baking.
Eggs: Bind the mixture and help it set into a cohesive, firm loaf as it cooks.
Rolled crackers: Absorb liquid and help bind the meat so it holds together when baked.
Cream: Adds moisture and richness, keeping the mixture tender as it bakes.

“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.