Skip to main content
Main

Veal Loaf

A loaf of veal mixed with eggs, butter, salt pork, bread crumbs, spices, and cream, baked in the oven.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 10 ingredients
Jump to recipe ↓

Why it works: Pepper and allspice match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 5% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 6,395 recipes. Both carry estragole, which smells anise, licorice. The science ↓

Veal Loaf

Ingredients

Directions

The book gives no oven temperature. The 300°F (150°C) in the steps was added when the recipe was transcribed, as a starting point.

Prepare

  1. Preheat the oven to 300°F (150°C).

Shape the loaf

  1. In a large bowl, mix the veal, eggs, butter, salt pork, bread crumbs, black pepper, salt, onion juice, allspice, and cream thoroughly.

  2. Shape the mixture into a roll.

  3. Place the roll in a baking pan with a little water.

Bake

  1. Bake for 2 hours, basting with melted butter until there is enough gravy for basting.

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. Pepper + allspicetop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together6,395 recipes

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

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

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

  3. Pork + oniontop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together18,214 recipes

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

  4. Veal + porktop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together4,930 recipes

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

  5. Pepper + oniontop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together68,474 recipes

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

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

What each ingredient does

Veal
Forms the main body of the loaf and gives it its meaty structure.
Eggs
Bind the mixture so the loaf holds its shape when sliced.
Butter
Adds richness and moisture, and browns during basting.
Salt pork
Adds fat and savory flavor that keeps the lean veal moist.
Bread crumbs
Absorb liquid and soften the texture, helping the loaf stay tender.

The step that matters

Basting with melted butter. Veal is lean and dries out during a long bake. Basting adds fat and moisture to the surface, and the drippings form gravy that keeps the loaf juicy.

Swap the allspice

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

  1. Parsleyfits better
  2. Sagefits better
  3. Thymefits better
  4. Allspicethe original

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

More veal loaf recipes

Spiced 11Creole 3 See all 380 →

You might also like

Brown BreadBrown Bread461 recipesPork CakePork Cake107 recipesRoast PorkRoast Pork82 recipesWhite BreadWhite Bread80 recipes