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Veal Cake

A layered veal and ham cake baked with seasoning and topped with a gravy made from isinglass and catsup.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 12 ingredients
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Why it works: Parsley and shallot match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 3,737 recipes. Both carry 2,4-decadienal, which smells seaweed. The science ↓

Veal Cake

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 your oven to 350°F (175°C).

  2. Grease a mold with butter.

Layer and bake

  1. Layer the bottom with veal and ham slices.

  2. Season with cayenne, salt, mace, parsley, and shallot.

  3. Add a layer of hard-boiled egg slices and press down.

  4. Bake until set.

Make the gravy and finish

  1. Make veal gravy by simmering shreds of isinglass in water, then strain.

  2. Stir in a small amount of catsup.

  3. Pour the gravy over the cake while hot.

  4. Let it cool, then turn it out of the mold.

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 + shallottop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together3,737 recipes

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

  2. Pepper + parsleytop 2% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together34,122 recipes

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

  3. Pepper + shallottop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together5,898 recipes

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

  4. Mace + parsleytop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together4,268 recipes

    Shared aroma: myristicin (spice, warm).

  5. Butter + parsleytop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together28,563 recipes

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

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

What each ingredient does

Veal
Forms the meaty body of the cake, setting firm as it bakes.
Hard-boiled eggs
Help bind the layers and add structure when set by heat.
Isinglass
A collagen that dissolves in hot water and sets into a jelly as it cools.
Ham
Adds salty, savory flavor that complements the veal.
Veal gravy
Adds moisture and savory flavor to the top of the cake.

The step that matters

Pour the gravy over the cake while hot. Hot gravy spreads evenly over the surface and soaks slightly into the layers. As it cools, the isinglass sets it into a jelly that holds the cake together. Gravy poured cold may not spread or set properly.

Swap the mace

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (butter, veal, ham, pepper, parsley, shallot, egg):

  1. Capersfits better
  2. Tarragonfits better
  3. Thymefits better
  4. Macethe original

Fit is the average pairing score against butter, veal, ham, pepper, parsley, shallot, egg. 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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