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Veal Loaf

A loaf made from boiled veal, raw pork, veal stock, parsley, crackers, and pepper, baked until cooked.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
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Why it works: Parsley and pepper match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 2% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 34,122 recipes. Both carry 4'-methylacetophenone, which smells bitter almond. 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).

Shape the loaf

  1. In a bowl, mix the chopped veal, raw pork, veal stock, parsley, rolled crackers, and pepper.

  2. Shape the mixture into a loaf.

  3. Butter the top of the loaf and cover it with grated bread crumbs.

Bake

  1. Bake for 30 minutes.

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. Parsley + peppertop 2% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together34,122 recipes

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

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

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

  3. Pork + peppertop 16% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together22,121 recipes

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

  4. Veal + parsleytop 17% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together4,766 recipes

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

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

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

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

What each ingredient does

Boiled veal
Forms the bulk of the loaf and gives it a meaty, tender body.
Raw pork
Adds fat and moisture so the loaf stays juicy as it bakes.
Rolled crackers
Absorb liquid and help bind the mixture so it holds its shape when sliced.
Veal stock
Adds moisture and savory flavor to the meat mixture.

The step that matters

Shape the mixture into a loaf. Packing the mixture firmly without overworking it helps the loaf hold together when sliced. Loose packing can crumble, while the crackers and raw pork help bind the meat as it sets in the oven.

Swap the parsley

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

  1. Sagefits better
  2. Marjoramfits better
  3. Thymefits about as well
  4. Parsleythe original

Fit is the average pairing score against veal, pork, 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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