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Veal Patties

Veal patties are small, baked meat cakes made from finely chopped veal and ham, seasoned with lemon, nutmeg, and stock.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 9 ingredients
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Veal Patties

Why it works: Lemon and pepper match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 3% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 27,047 recipes. Both carry trans-2-nonenal, which smells cardboard, fatty. The science ↓

Veal Patties

Oven, in the book's wordsA hot oven

Ingredients

Directions

The book says “a hot oven”. The 400°F (200°C) in the steps is the modern equivalent, not the book's own figure.

Make the filling

  1. Chop the veal and ham very finely.

  2. Pound in a mortar with salt, pepper, nutmeg, lemon rind, and lemon juice.

  3. Moisten with stock until smooth, then rub through a fine sieve.

  4. Stir in cream and season to taste.

Prepare the cases

  1. Roll out puff pastry to ¼ inch thickness and cut out 8-9 rounds, 2 inches in diameter.

  2. Brush rounds with beaten egg and make an incision in the center with a smaller cutter.

Bake and serve

  1. Bake in a hot oven at 400°F (200°C).

  2. Remove tops, scoop out soft inside, fill with mixture, and replace tops.

  3. Serve hot or cold; if hot, warm in the oven.

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.

Photo for illustrative purposes only · Contact us to use it

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. Lemon + peppertop 3% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together27,047 recipes

    Shared aroma: trans-2-nonenal (cardboard, fatty).

  2. Lemon + nutmegtop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together11,318 recipes

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

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

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

  4. Cream + nutmegtop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together7,920 recipes

    Shared aroma: acetic acid (sour, vinegar).

  5. Veal + hamtop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together3,264 recipes

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

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 filling, giving it a meaty structure once pounded and sieved.
Ham
Adds savoury, salty flavour that deepens the taste of the veal.
Stock
Moistens the minced meat so it becomes smooth and easy to spread.
Cream
Adds richness and a soft, silky texture to the finished filling.
Lemon juice
Adds acidity that brightens the meat and balances its richness.
Lemon rind
Contributes aromatic citrus oils that lift the flavour of the filling.

The step that matters

Rubbing the filling through a fine sieve. Pushing the moistened, pounded meat through a fine sieve breaks up fibres and removes lumps, giving a smooth, even texture. Any coarse pieces left behind would make the filling grainy inside the pastry.

“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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