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Spice Meat

A loaf of ground veal and round steak mixed with eggs, sage, salt, pepper, butter, and soaked bread, baked until cooked.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 8 ingredients
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Why it works: Sage and pepper match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 3% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 5,388 recipes. Both carry beta-phellandrene, which smells minty, terpene. The science ↓

Spice Meat

Oven, in the book's wordsA good oven

Ingredients

Directions

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

Prepare

  1. Grind the veal and round steak using a food chopper.

Mix and shape

  1. In a bowl, combine the ground meat, eggs, sage, salt, pepper, and butter.

  2. Add the soaked bread and mix well.

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

Bake

  1. Bake in a 350°F (175°C) oven for 2½ hours.

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. Sage + peppertop 3% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together5,388 recipes

    Shared aroma: beta-phellandrene (minty, terpene).

  2. Butter + breadtop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together27,232 recipes

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

  3. Egg + breadtop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together22,662 recipes

    Shared aroma: (e)-2-octenal (fatty, green).

  4. Veal + sagetop 14% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together670 recipes

    Shared aroma: 3-hexenal (apple, fruity).

  5. Sage + breadtop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,778 recipes

    Shared aroma: eucalyptol (eucalyptus, herbal).

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

What each ingredient does

Veal
Provides the main meaty body and mild flavour of the loaf.
Round steak
Adds beefy flavour and firm meat texture to the loaf.
Eggs
Bind the meat together so the loaf holds its shape when sliced.
Bread
Soaked bread adds moisture and keeps the meat tender as it cooks.
Butter
Adds fat that keeps the loaf moist and rich during baking.

The step that matters

Bake in a 350°F (175°C) oven for 2½ hours. A long, moderate bake lets the meat cook through gently. Baking too hot can dry out the loaf or leave the centre undercooked, so the time and temperature both matter.

Swap the sage

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

  1. Parsleyfits better
  2. Nutmegfits about as well
  3. Sagethe original
  4. Tarragonfits about as well

Fit is the average pairing score against veal, egg, pepper, butter, bread. 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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