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Potted Veal

A dish of minced veal, ham, and stuffing mixed with butter, spices, and gravy, then pressed into small pots and topped with melted butter.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 8 ingredients
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Why it works: Nutmeg and mace are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 4% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 6,557 recipes. Both carry myristicin, which smells spice, warm. The science ↓

Potted Veal

Ingredients

Directions

Make the mixture

  1. Pass the veal, ham, and stuffing through a mincing machine twice.

  2. Add 2 ounces of butter, salt, pepper, nutmeg, mace, and gravy to the mixture.

  3. Mix all ingredients thoroughly.

Pot and seal

  1. Press the mixture firmly into small pots.

  2. Cover the top with melted butter.

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. Nutmeg + macetop 4% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together6,557 recipes

    Shared aroma: myristicin (spice, warm).

  2. Nutmeg + peppertop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together13,015 recipes

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

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

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

  4. Pepper + macetop 16% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together12,257 recipes

    Shared aroma: myristicin (spice, warm).

  5. Butter + nutmegtop 16% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together24,377 recipes

    Shared aroma: eucalyptol (eucalyptus, herbal).

Pepper and mace barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 12,257 recipes: they work on texture and structure more than aroma.

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

What each ingredient does

Veal
Provides the main body and texture of the spread once minced and pressed.
Butter
Adds richness and moisture, and forms a sealing layer on top.
Ham
Adds savoury, salty flavour and firmer texture to the mixture.
Gravy
Adds moisture and savoury depth, helping the mixture bind together.
Mace
Adds a warm, delicate aroma that complements the meat.

The step that matters

Press the mixture firmly into small pots. Firm packing removes air pockets from the mixture. Covering the top with melted butter then seals the surface against air, which helps limit spoilage and keeps the spread from drying out.

Swap the mace

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

  1. Parsleyfits better
  2. Clovefits better
  3. Marjoramfits better
  4. Macethe original

Fit is the average pairing score against veal, butter, ham, nutmeg, 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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