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Veal Loaf, No. 2

A loaf of veal and pork mixed with crackers, eggs, and milk, seasoned with salt, pepper, and sage, baked slowly.

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

Veal Loaf, No. 2

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 the oven to 350°F (175°C).

Make and shape the loaf

  1. In a large bowl, mix the veal, pork, rolled crackers, beaten eggs, and enough cream or milk to moisten.

  2. Season with salt, pepper, and sage to your taste.

  3. Form the mixture into a loaf and place it in a greased baking pan.

Bake and serve

  1. Bake for 3 hours, using both hot radiators.

  2. Serve hot or cold.

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 aroma chemistry they share, and how many recipes mention both.

  1. Pepper + sagetop 3% of all pairs
    Aroma overlapstrong
    Mentioned together5,388 recipes

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

  2. Veal + porktop 11% of all pairs
    Aroma overlapmoderate
    Mentioned together4,930 recipes

    Shared aroma: 4-heptenal (creamy, biscuit).

  3. Pork + sagetop 12% of all pairs
    Aroma overlapmoderate
    Mentioned together2,527 recipes

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

  4. Veal + sagetop 14% of all pairs
    Aroma overlaplow
    Mentioned together670 recipes

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

  5. Pork + creamtop 16% of all pairs
    Aroma overlaplow
    Mentioned together3,093 recipes

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

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 meaty texture of the loaf.
Pork
Adds fat and moisture, keeping the loaf from drying out.
Eggs
Bind the meat and crackers together so the loaf holds its shape when sliced.
Soda crackers
Absorb liquid and add body, helping the loaf stay tender and moist.

The step that matters

Shape and bake the loaf gently. Packing the mixture too tightly makes the loaf dense and tough. Gentle shaping keeps it tender, and a long, moderate bake lets the eggs set through the center without drying the outside.

Flavor stand-ins for the sage

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

  1. Nutmegabout as good a flavor fit
  2. Parsleyabout as good a flavor fit
  3. Sagethe original
  4. Tarragonabout as good a flavor fit

Fit is the average pairing score against veal, pork, egg, cream, pepper. Candidates are from the same food group and used in at least 100 recipes. This compares flavor only: it does not check the job the ingredient does in the dish (bulk, moisture, acidity, structure).

“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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