Skip to main content
Main

Bewitched Veal

A baked loaf of finely chopped veal and pork with spices, eggs, milk, and breadcrumbs.

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

Why it works: Butter and milk are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 7% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 81,283 recipes. Both carry (z)-4-heptenal, which smells biscuit, cream. The science ↓

Bewitched 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.

Prepare the mixture

  1. Chop the veal and fat salt pork very fine.

  2. Mix the chopped meat with the eggs and milk.

  3. Add the grated nutmeg, butter, grated onion, salt, and cayenne pepper.

  4. Form the mixture into a compact loaf.

Bake and serve

  1. Sprinkle with bread crumbs.

  2. Bake in a 350°F (175°C) oven for 1 to 2 hours.

  3. Cover while baking.

  4. Serve cold with salad.

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. Butter + milktop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together81,283 recipes

    Shared aroma: (z)-4-heptenal (biscuit, cream).

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

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

  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. Onion + peppertop 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
Provides the main body of the loaf, setting into a sliceable texture as it cooks.
Eggs
Bind the chopped meat together so the loaf holds its shape when cooled and sliced.
Fat salt pork
Adds fat that keeps the lean veal moist and tender during baking.
Milk
Adds moisture that keeps the loaf from drying out as it bakes.
Bread crumbs
Form a crisp, lightly browned topping on the loaf's surface.

The step that matters

Cover while baking. Covering traps steam around the lean veal, slowing moisture loss so the loaf stays moist over the long bake instead of drying at the surface.

Swap the onion

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

  1. Potatofits better
  2. Capsicumfits better
  3. Asparagusfits better
  4. Onionthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against veal, pork, nutmeg, butter, pepper, egg, milk. 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