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Veal Loaf

A loaf of veal mixed with pork, crackers, eggs, butter, spices, baked with breadcrumbs.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 10 ingredients
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Why it works: Butter and bread are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 7% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 27,232 recipes. Both carry delta-decalactone, which smells sweet, creamy. 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 the loaf

  1. Chop together the cold veal and boiled pork.

  2. Mix in the rolled crackers, beaten eggs, butter, salt, pepper, and grated nutmeg.

  3. Shape the mixture into a loaf and place it in a dripping pan with some water.

Bake

  1. Sprinkle the top with bread crumbs and dot with a small lump of butter.

  2. Bake at 350°F (175°C) for two hours, basting frequently.

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. Butter + breadtop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together27,232 recipes

    Shared aroma: delta-decalactone (sweet, creamy).

  2. Pepper + nutmegtop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together13,015 recipes

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

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

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

  4. Pork + breadtop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together4,371 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-acetyl-1-pyrroline (popcorn, roasted).

  5. Pork + buttertop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together13,933 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-furfurylthiol (coffee, roasted).

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

What each ingredient does

Cold veal
Forms the bulk of the loaf and provides the main meaty texture.
Eggs
Bind the chopped meat and crackers so the loaf holds its shape when sliced.
Crackers
Absorb moisture and add body, keeping the loaf tender rather than dense.
Butter
Adds fat and richness, keeping the meat moist as it bakes.

The step that matters

Basting frequently during baking. Lean meat dries out over a long bake, and regular basting with the juices in the pan keeps the surface moist and the interior tender.

Swap the nutmeg

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

  1. Parsleyfits about as well
  2. Sagefits about as well
  3. Nutmegthe original
  4. Marjoramfits about as well

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