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Bewitched Veal

A loaf of seasoned veal mixed with eggs, milk, and breadcrumbs, baked until firm.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 10 ingredients
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Why it works: Butter and milk are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 7% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 81,283 recipes. Both carry (z)-4-heptenal, which smells biscuit, cream. The science ↓

Bewitched Veal

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 the mixture

  1. Chop the veal, salt pork, butter, onion, nutmeg, cayenne, and salt together until finely mixed.

  2. In a bowl, combine the chopped mixture with the eggs and milk, mixing well.

Shape and bake

  1. Shape the mixture into a loaf and press firmly.

  2. Cover the loaf with bread crumbs.

  3. Bake in a preheated oven at 350°F (175°C) for about 2.5 hours.

Serve

  1. Let cool, then slice thinly to 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 + milktop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together81,283 recipes

    Shared aroma: (z)-4-heptenal (biscuit, cream).

  2. Nutmeg + peppertop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together13,015 recipes

    Shared aroma: 4'-methylacetophenone (bitter almond).

  3. Pork + oniontop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together18,214 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).

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

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

  5. Onion + peppertop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together68,474 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).

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

What each ingredient does

Veal
Provides the main body and meaty structure of the loaf.
Eggs
Bind the mixture and set on baking to hold the loaf together.
Salt pork
Adds fat and moisture so the loaf stays juicy as it bakes.
Milk
Adds moisture that keeps the loaf tender rather than dry.
Bread crumbs
Form a golden crust on the outside of the loaf as it bakes.

The step that matters

Pressing the loaf firmly before baking. Firm pressing removes air pockets and helps the mixture bind, so the loaf holds together when sliced. Loose shaping can cause it to crumble once cooled and cut.

Swap the onion

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

  1. Potatofits better
  2. Capsicumfits better
  3. Asparagusfits better
  4. Onionthe original

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