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Potted Veal

A savory veal dish cooked with butter, spices, and eggs, then baked and topped with clarified butter.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 19 ingredients
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Why it works: Allspice and clove match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 7,874 recipes. Both carry estragole, which smells anise, licorice. The science ↓

Potted Veal

Oven, in the book's wordsA moderate oven

Ingredients

Directions

The book says “a moderate oven”. The 350°F (175°C) in the steps is the modern equivalent, not the book's own figure.

Make the mixture

  1. Combine veal, butter, lemon juice, pepper, salt, mace, bay leaf, allspice, cloves, nutmeg, cinnamon, mushroom powder, parsley, thyme, savory, and chopped eschalots in a stewpan.

  2. Cook over medium heat for 10 minutes.

  3. Pound the mixture.

  4. Add boiled pickle tongue and cold butter.

  5. Mix well with beaten eggs.

Pot and bake

  1. Press the mixture tightly into small pots.

  2. Cover the pots with paper.

  3. Bake in a 350°F (175°C) oven for 20 minutes.

Finish

  1. Once cooled, pour clarified butter over the top.

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. Allspice + clovetop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together7,874 recipes

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

  2. Allspice + nutmegtop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together3,331 recipes

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

  3. Clove + nutmegtop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together8,686 recipes

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

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

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

  5. Mace + nutmegtop 4% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together6,557 recipes

    Shared aroma: myristicin (spice, warm).

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

What each ingredient does

Lean white veal
Forms the main body of the potted mixture, giving it a firm, meaty texture.
Fresh butter
Adds richness and moisture, keeping the mixture soft and smooth.
Eggs
Bind the mixture and help it set firm when baked.
Boiled pickle tongue
Adds savory, meaty flavour and a tender, rich texture.
Eschalots
Contribute a mild onion-like aroma and savory depth.
Lemon juice
Adds acidity that brightens the rich, fatty flavour.

The step that matters

Pressing the mixture tightly into the pots. Packing the mixture firmly removes air gaps, so the filling bakes dense and even rather than crumbly or full of pockets.

Swap the mace

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (veal, butter, lemon, pepper, allspice, clove, nutmeg):

  1. Cinnamonfits better
  2. Marjoramfits better
  3. Thymefits better
  4. Macethe original

Fit is the average pairing score against veal, butter, lemon, pepper, allspice, clove, nutmeg. 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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