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Veal and Ham

A ground mixture of veal and ham, seasoned with pepper and coarse sea salt, cooled to solidify.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 4 ingredients
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Why it works: Veal and ham are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 15% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 3,264 recipes. Both carry 2,4-decadienal, which smells seaweed. The science ↓

Veal and Ham

Ingredients

Directions

Cook the meat

  1. Place the veal and ham in a pot with cold water.

  2. Boil until the bones are clean.

Grind and season

  1. Pass the meat through a meat grinder.

  2. Pour the cooking liquid over the ground meat.

  3. Season with pepper and coarse sea salt, adjusting for the saltiness of the ham.

Set

  1. Transfer to small basins and let cool; it will solidify when 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. Veal + hamtop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together3,264 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2,4-decadienal (seaweed).

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

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

  3. Ham + peppertop 23% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together6,058 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2,4-decadienal (seaweed).

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

What each ingredient does

Veal
Provides the main meaty body and, through its bones, gelatin that helps the meatloaf set.
Ham
Adds savory, salty flavor and more meat to the loaf.

The step that matters

Season after the ham has flavored the liquid. Ham is cured and salty, and the cooking liquid concentrates its salt as it reduces and cools. Seasoning before tasting risks an overly salty result, so taste the mixture before adding coarse sea salt.

“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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