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Veal Loaf

A chilled loaf made from boiled veal, ham, and seasonings, pressed and refrigerated until firm.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 8 ingredients
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Why it works: Lemon and pepper match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 3% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 27,047 recipes. Both carry trans-2-nonenal, which smells cardboard, fatty. The science ↓

Veal Loaf

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. If using raw veal, boil it until cooked, then let it cool.

  2. Boil down the cooking liquid or gravy until reduced to ½ cup.

Make the loaf

  1. Add butter, lemon juice, pepper, salt, and mace to the reduced liquid.

  2. Chop the veal and ham very finely and mix them well.

  3. Wet the mixture with the gravy and press it into a bowl.

  4. Cover with a saucer and place a weight on top to compress it.

  5. Refrigerate overnight until firm, then turn out and slice thinly.

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. Lemon + peppertop 3% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together27,047 recipes

    Shared aroma: trans-2-nonenal (cardboard, fatty).

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

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

  3. Pepper + macetop 16% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together12,257 recipes

    Shared aroma: myristicin (spice, warm).

  4. Butter + lemontop 16% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together41,227 recipes

    Shared aroma: 3-hexenal (apple, fruity).

  5. Butter + hamtop 16% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together5,475 recipes

    Shared aroma: trans-2-decenal (waxy, orange).

Pepper and mace barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 12,257 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 loaf, setting firm when chilled and pressed.
Cooking liquid or gravy
Adds moisture and savory flavor, helping bind the chopped meat together.
Boiled ham
Adds savory, salty flavor and texture to the chopped meat mixture.
Butter
Adds richness and fat, giving the loaf a smoother mouthfeel.
Lemon juice
Adds acidity that brightens the flavor of the rich meat.

The step that matters

Pressing and chilling overnight. Compressing the mixture and chilling it long enough lets the gelatin in the meat and liquid set, so the loaf holds together when sliced. Slicing too early can cause it to crumble.

Swap the mace

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

  1. Parsleyfits better
  2. Thymefits better
  3. Marjoramfits better
  4. Macethe original

Fit is the average pairing score against veal, butter, lemon, pepper, ham. 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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