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Veal Loaf

A loaf of seasoned veal mixed with salt pork, eggs, cream, and sage, baked until cooked.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
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Why it works: Pepper and sage match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 3% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 5,388 recipes. Both carry beta-phellandrene, which smells minty, terpene. 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

  1. Preheat the oven to 350°F (175°C).

Mix and bake

  1. In a large bowl, combine the veal, chopped salt pork, beaten eggs, sweet cream, salt, black pepper, and powdered sage, and mix well until all ingredients are thoroughly combined.

  2. Transfer the mixture into a loaf pan.

  3. Bake in the preheated oven until cooked through.

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 + sagetop 3% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together5,388 recipes

    Shared aroma: beta-phellandrene (minty, terpene).

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

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

  3. Pork + sagetop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,527 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-hexenal (green, leafy).

  4. Veal + sagetop 14% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together670 recipes

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

  5. Pork + creamtop 16% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together3,093 recipes

    Shared aroma: 1-octen-3-one (mushroom, metallic).

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 and provides its meaty structure and texture.
Salt pork
Adds fat and moisture, keeping the lean veal from drying out as it bakes.
Eggs
Bind the mixture and set on baking, holding the loaf together when sliced.
Sweet cream
Adds moisture and richness, contributing to a tender, juicy texture.

The step that matters

Bake until cooked through. Veal and pork must reach a safe internal temperature all the way to the center. Because the record gives no time, check the loaf's center with a thermometer rather than relying on color or appearance.

Swap the sage

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

  1. Nutmegfits about as well
  2. Parsleyfits about as well
  3. Sagethe original
  4. Tarragonfits about as well

Fit is the average pairing score against veal, pork, egg, cream, 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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