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Veal, Minced, in Potato Cases

Minced veal and ham baked in mashed potato cases with cheese, stock, and seasonings.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 13 ingredients
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Why it works: Butter and bread are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 7% of all ingredient pairs, and 27,232 recipes mention both. Both carry delta-decalactone, which smells sweet, creamy. The science ↓

Veal, Minced, in Potato Cases

Oven, in the book's wordsA sharp oven

Ingredients

Directions

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

Prepare the cases

  1. Line small china cases with mashed potatoes.

  2. Sprinkle the insides with a pinch of grated cheese.

Make and fill

  1. Make a mince with the veal, ham, and stock, using about ½ cup of stock and ½ cup of sauce.

  2. Fill the cases level with the mince.

  3. Cover with a thin layer of mashed potatoes.

Season and bake

  1. Dredge with bread crumbs.

  2. Sprinkle with grated lemon peel, nutmeg, and cayenne.

  3. Dot with butter.

  4. Bake in a preheated oven at 400°F (200°C) until heated through and tops are browned.

  5. Garnish with fried parsley before serving.

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 aroma chemistry they share, and how many recipes mention both.

  1. Butter + breadtop 7% of all pairs
    Aroma overlapmoderate
    Mentioned together27,232 recipes

    Shared aroma: delta-decalactone (sweet, creamy).

  2. Cheese + breadtop 7% of all pairs
    Aroma overlapmoderate
    Mentioned together2,130 recipes

    Shared aroma: delta-decalactone (sweet, creamy).

  3. Ham + breadtop 7% of all pairs
    Aroma overlapmoderate
    Mentioned together2,536 recipes

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

  4. Cheese + buttertop 8% of all pairs
    Aroma overlapmoderate
    Mentioned together7,962 recipes

    Shared aroma: delta-dodecalactone (sweet, creamy).

  5. Potato + lemontop 12% of all pairs
    Aroma overlapmoderate
    Mentioned together2,230 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

Cold veal
Provides the main meat filling, which is cooked through and bound into the mince.
Potatoes
Form the case and the top layer, holding the filling while baking.
Grated cheese
Adds savoury, salty flavour and browns on the inside of the case.
Butter
Adds richness and helps the top layer brown in the oven.
Bread crumbs
Form a crisp, golden crust on the top.
Sauce
Moistens the mince so the filling stays tender rather than dry.

The step that matters

Fill the cases level with the mince. Mince packed unevenly heats unevenly, so thin spots can dry out or underheat while thick areas are still cold. Even filling and a sealed potato top help the centre heat through without overbaking the edges.

Flavor stand-ins for the lemon

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (veal, ham, cheese, potato, butter, bread, sauce):

  1. Applebetter flavor fit
  2. Figabout as good a flavor fit
  3. Grapeabout as good a flavor fit
  4. Lemonthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against veal, ham, cheese, potato, butter, bread, sauce. Candidates are from the same food group and used in at least 100 recipes. This compares flavor only: it does not check the job the ingredient does in the dish (bulk, moisture, acidity, structure).

“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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