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Veal Loaf

A loaf of ground veal mixed with crackers, eggs, butter, pepper, and clove, baked slowly.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 10 ingredients
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Why it works: Pepper and clove 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

The book gives no oven temperature. The 300°F (150°C) in the steps was added when the recipe was transcribed, as a starting point.

Prepare

  1. Chop the veal and fat pork together until raw.

  2. In a bowl, mix the chopped meat with crushed crackers, eggs, butter, pepper, and clove until well combined.

  3. Shape the mixture into a loaf and place it in a shallow baking pan.

Bake

  1. Add a little water to the pan.

  2. Cover the loaf with bits of butter.

  3. Dredge flour over it.

  4. Bake at 300°F (150°C) for 2 hours, basting occasionally.

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 + clovetop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together17,451 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl octanoate (fruity, wine).

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

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

  3. Butter + flourtop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together124,287 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

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

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

  5. Clove + flourtop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together12,671 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

Butter and flour barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 124,287 recipes: they work on texture and structure more than aroma.

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 gives it its meaty texture.
Eggs
Bind the chopped meat so the loaf holds its shape when sliced.
Crackers
Absorb moisture and help keep the loaf tender and sliceable.
Butter
Adds fat for richness and moisture, helping keep the loaf from drying out.
Fat salt pork
Adds fat and savoury flavour that keeps the lean veal juicy.

The step that matters

Bake at 300°F (150°C) for 2 hours, basting occasionally. Baking gently at a low temperature cooks the loaf through without drying it out. Basting with the pan liquid and butter keeps the surface moist and helps it brown evenly.

Swap the clove

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

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

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