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Veal Loaf

A loaf of veal mixed with salt pork, stale bread, eggs, salt, pepper, and sage, baked until cooked.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 7 ingredients
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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

Oven, in the book's wordsA moderate oven

Ingredients

Directions

The book says “a moderate oven”. The 350°F (175°C) in the steps is the modern equivalent, not the book's own figure.

Prepare the loaf

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

  2. In a large bowl, combine the veal, salt pork, stale bread, raw eggs, salt, black pepper, and sage, and mix well until fully combined.

Bake

  1. Transfer the mixture to a loaf pan and bake for 2½ hours.

  2. Baste the loaf occasionally during baking.

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

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

  5. Bread + eggtop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together22,662 recipes

    Shared aroma: (e)-2-octenal (fatty, green).

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.
Salt pork
Adds fat that keeps the loaf moist as it bakes.
Stale bread
Soaks up liquid and helps the loaf hold a tender, sliceable texture.
Raw eggs
Bind the mixture and set during baking to hold the loaf together.

The step that matters

Baste the loaf occasionally during baking. Meat loaf is lean and can dry out over a long bake. Basting adds moisture to the surface, helping keep the exterior from drying while the interior cooks through.

Swap the sage

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

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

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