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Veal Patte

A baked veal pâté made with minced veal, crackers, butter, eggs, and spices.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 7 ingredients
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Why it works: Pepper and clove match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 5% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 17,451 recipes. Both carry ethyl octanoate, which smells fruity, wine. The science ↓

Veal Patte

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).

Make and bake the loaf

  1. In a bowl, mix the minced veal, rolled crackers, salt, black pepper, ground cloves, butter, and eggs until well combined.

  2. Shape the mixture into a loaf.

  3. Place a small piece of butter and some grated bread on top of the loaf.

  4. Bake for 2 hours, basting with water occasionally.

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 + clovetop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together17,451 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl octanoate (fruity, wine).

  2. Butter + eggtop 17% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together118,967 recipes

    Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).

  3. Veal + peppertop 19% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together10,049 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).

  4. Butter + peppertop 21% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together85,593 recipes

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

  5. Veal + buttertop 23% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together9,381 recipes

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

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 paté and provides its meaty structure and flavour.
Eggs
Bind the mixture together and help it set firm as it bakes.
Butter crackers
Absorb moisture and help give the paté a tender, cohesive texture.
Butter
Adds richness and moisture, keeping the loaf from drying out during baking.

The step that matters

Bake for 2 hours, basting with water occasionally. Lean meat dries out over a long bake. Occasional basting adds moisture to the surface, and the loaf should be fully set through before serving so the eggs cook and the texture holds together.

Swap the clove

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

  1. Parsleyfits better
  2. Sagefits better
  3. Nutmegfits better
  4. Clovethe original

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