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Veal Cake

A layered casserole of hard‑boiled eggs, veal, ham, parsley, and butter baked in a pot.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 8 ingredients
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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 Cake

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.

Layer the pot

  1. Cut the hard-boiled eggs in half and lay some pieces in the bottom of a pot.

  2. Sprinkle chopped parsley.

  3. Add slices of veal and ham.

  4. Layer more egg pieces.

  5. Continue layering with parsley, salt, and pepper until the pot is full.

  6. Add enough water to cover the contents.

  7. Place 1 ounce of butter on top.

Bake

  1. Cover the pot with double paper.

  2. Bake at 300°F (150°C) for about 1 hour.

Press, cool and serve

  1. Press the mixture together with a spoon.

  2. Let it cool.

  3. Place it in a small mold for presentation.

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. Parsley + buttertop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together28,563 recipes

    Shared aroma: trans-2-hexenal (green, leafy).

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

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

  4. Ham + buttertop 16% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together5,475 recipes

    Shared aroma: trans-2-decenal (waxy, orange).

  5. Egg + hamtop 17% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together4,526 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

Hard-boiled eggs
Form the bulk of the filling and add a firm, sliceable texture.
Veal
Provides the meaty body of the cake, which firms as it cooks and cools.
Ham
Adds salty, savory flavor between the layers.
Butter
Adds richness and moisture as it melts over the layers.
Parsley
Adds a fresh, green aroma that lightens the rich meats.

The step that matters

Press the mixture together with a spoon. Pressing packs the layers together so the cake holds its shape. Cooling lets it set firm enough to unmold cleanly into the mold.

“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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