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Veal Roll

A loaf of finely chopped veal mixed with eggs, butter, crackers, spices, and salt pork, baked with butter and breadcrumbs.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 11 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 Roll

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).

Shape the loaf

  1. In a large bowl, combine the chopped veal, eggs, butter, pounded crackers, salt, pepper, grated nutmeg, and chopped salt pork. Mix all ingredients thoroughly and shape into a loaf.

  2. Place bits of butter on top and sprinkle with bread crumbs.

  3. Put the loaf in a pan and cover the bottom with water.

Bake and serve

  1. Bake for 2 hours.

  2. Let cool, then slice and serve cold.

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. Butter + porktop 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

Veal
Forms the main body of the loaf, giving it a firm, sliceable texture when cooked.
Eggs
Bind the meat and help the loaf hold its shape as it sets in the oven.
Pounded crackers
Absorb juices and add body, helping the loaf stay moist and bound together.
Salt pork
Adds fat and savory flavor, keeping the lean veal moister during baking.

The step that matters

Shape and bind the loaf thoroughly. Mixing the meat, eggs and crackers evenly lets the proteins bind as they set, so the loaf holds together when sliced cold.

Swap the nutmeg

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