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Veal Loaf

A loaf made from veal, tomatoes, milk, and breadcrumbs, baked with seasonings.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 8 ingredients
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Why it works: Tomato and pepper are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 7% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 17,923 recipes. Both carry 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine, which smells earthy, pea. 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. In a bowl, combine sweet milk with enough crackers or bread crumbs to thicken the mixture.

  2. Add the chopped veal and one cup of tomatoes to the bowl.

  3. Season the mixture with salt, pepper, and poultry seasoning.

Bake

  1. Shape the mixture into a loaf and place it in a baking dish.

  2. Pour water over the loaf and bake at 350°F (175°C) for 1.5 hours, basting occasionally.

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. Tomato + peppertop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together17,923 recipes

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

  2. Bread + tomatotop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,013 recipes

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

  3. Milk + breadtop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together11,466 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-undecenal (sweet).

  4. Milk + tomatotop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,226 recipes

    Shared aroma: 1-octen-3-one (mushroom, metallic).

  5. Bread + peppertop 16% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together20,964 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

Chopped veal
Forms the main body of the loaf and provides the meaty structure.
Crackers or bread crumbs
Absorb the milk and bind the mixture so the loaf holds its shape.
Sweet milk
Adds moisture and softens the mixture, keeping the loaf tender.
Tomatoes
Add moisture and a gentle acidity that brightens the flavour.

The step that matters

Baking with basting. Veal is lean, so it can dry out during the long bake. Pouring liquid over the loaf and basting it keeps the surface moist while the centre cooks through.

Swap the tomato

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

  1. Capsicumfits about as well
  2. Tomatothe original
  3. Potatofits about as well
  4. Carrotfits less well

Fit is the average pairing score against milk, bread, veal, 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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