Skip to main content
Main

Veal Loaf

A loaf of finely chopped veal mixed with salt pork, milk, cracker crumbs, eggs, spices, baked and served with a gravy.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 13 ingredients
Jump to recipe ↓

Why it works: Milk and butter are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 7% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 81,283 recipes. Both carry (z)-4-heptenal, which smells biscuit, cream. The science ↓

Veal Loaf

Ingredients

Directions

The book gives no oven temperature. The 400°F (200°C) in the steps was added when the recipe was transcribed, as a starting point.

Prepare the loaf

  1. Preheat the oven to 400°F (200°C).

  2. In a large bowl, mix the veal, salt pork, milk, cracker crumbs, eggs, pepper, salt, onion juice, and kitchen bouquet.

  3. Mold the mixture into a loaf and place it in a pan.

  4. Dot the top with butter and sprinkle with flour.

Bake and serve

  1. Bake for 1 hour.

  2. Remove the loaf to a hot dish.

  3. In the pan, thicken the gravy with 1 tablespoon of flour and brown it.

  4. Add ½ pint of boiling water and stir until smooth.

  5. Stir in 1 teaspoon of Worcestershire sauce and pour over the meat.

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. Milk + buttertop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together81,283 recipes

    Shared aroma: (z)-4-heptenal (biscuit, cream).

  2. Pork + oniontop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together18,214 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).

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

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

  4. Pepper + oniontop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together68,474 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).

  5. Butter + flourtop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together124,287 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

Butter and flour barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 124,287 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
Provides the main meaty body and structure of the loaf when finely chopped and bound.
Eggs
Bind the mixture and help the loaf hold its shape as it sets.
Cracker crumbs
Absorb liquid and add body, keeping the loaf moist and tender.
Milk
Adds moisture that keeps the loaf tender during baking.
Salt pork
Adds fat and flavor, keeping the lean veal moist as it cooks.
Flour
Thickens the pan gravy and helps it brown.

The step that matters

Thicken and brown the gravy with flour. Flour must be cooked in the fat until browned before the boiling water is added; otherwise the gravy can taste raw and form lumps. Stirring until smooth keeps it even.

Swap the onion

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

  1. Potatofits better
  2. Capsicumfits better
  3. Asparagusfits better
  4. Onionthe original

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