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Veal Loaf

A loaf of veal and pickled pork mixed with eggs, onions, and seasonings, then baked and left to set.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 9 ingredients
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Why it works: Clove and pepper 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 Loaf

Ingredients

Directions

Cook the meat

  1. Cook the veal, pork, and all seasonings together until tender.

  2. Chop the meat coarsely in a chopping bowl.

  3. Return the chopped meat to the cooking liquid.

  4. Ensure there is about 1½ cups of liquid.

  5. Reheat the mixture.

Mould and set

  1. Place half of the meat in a small narrow pan.

  2. Lay the whole hard-boiled eggs lengthwise in the center of the pan.

  3. Pour the remaining meat over the eggs.

  4. Allow to stand for 24 hours before using.

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. Clove + peppertop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together17,451 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl octanoate (fruity, wine).

  2. Celery + peppertop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together16,012 recipes

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

  3. Clove + celerytop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together4,668 recipes

    Shared aroma: gamma-decalactone (peach, creamy).

  4. Onion + celerytop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together18,518 recipes

    Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).

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

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

Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs

What each ingredient does

Lean veal
Provides the main body of meat, which sets into a firm, sliceable loaf as it cools.
Pickled pork
Adds fat and savoury flavour, keeping the loaf moist and well seasoned.
Hard boiled eggs
Form a central band that shows as a decorative ring when the loaf is sliced.
Onion
Adds aromatic sweetness and depth to the cooking liquid.

The step that matters

Ensure there is about 1½ cups of liquid. The cooking liquid is the gelatine-rich stock that sets the loaf when chilled. Too little liquid leaves the meat dry and the loaf unable to hold together when sliced.

Swap the clove

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

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

Fit is the average pairing score against veal, pork, egg, onion, celery, pepper. 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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