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Veal Loaf

A baked loaf made from finely chopped veal, salt pork, crackers, butter, eggs, and seasonings.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 9 ingredients
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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. Preheat the oven to 350°F (175°C).

  2. In a large bowl, mix the veal, salt pork, rolled crackers, butter, eggs, salt, pepper, sage, and extract of celery thoroughly.

  3. Pack the mixture tightly into a deep square tin.

Bake and brown

  1. Cover the top with bits of butter and sprinkle fine cracker crumbs over it.

  2. Cover with another tin and bake for 2 hours.

  3. Uncover and brown the top for the last few minutes.

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. Pepper + celerytop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together16,012 recipes

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

  3. Sage + celerytop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together723 recipes

    Shared aroma: beta-phellandrene (minty, terpene).

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

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

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

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

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 rich, meaty texture when cooked.
Eggs
Bind the chopped meat and crackers so the loaf holds its shape when sliced.
Crackers
Absorb juices and moisture, keeping the loaf tender rather than dry.
Salt pork
Adds fat and savoury flavour, keeping the lean veal moist during baking.
Butter
Adds richness and fat, and browns on the top of the loaf.

The step that matters

Packing the mixture tightly into the tin. Firm packing removes air pockets so the loaf holds together and slices cleanly. Loose packing can let it crumble or bake unevenly.

Swap the celery

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

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

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