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Jellied Meat Loaf

A loaf of cold meat mixed with spices and stock, set to gel.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 9 ingredients
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Why it works: Clove and cinnamon match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 14,189 recipes. Both carry ethyl cinnamate, which smells sweet, balsamic. The science ↓

Jellied Meat Loaf

Ingredients

Directions

Make the mixture

  1. Combine the cold meat, ground cloves, allspice, mace, salt, boiling veal stock, ground cinnamon, and black pepper in a bowl.

  2. If the stock does not gel, dissolve 1 teaspoon of gelatin in cold water and add it to the mixture.

  3. Mix all ingredients well.

Mold and serve

  1. Press the mixture into a mold that has been rinsed in cold water.

  2. Set aside to cool and harden.

  3. Once hardened, loosen the edges with a knife and turn out onto a dish.

  4. Serve 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. Clove + cinnamontop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together14,189 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl cinnamate (sweet, balsamic).

  2. Clove + allspicetop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together7,874 recipes

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

  3. Allspice + cinnamontop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together5,536 recipes

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

  4. Clove + peppertop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together17,451 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl octanoate (fruity, wine).

  5. Allspice + peppertop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together6,395 recipes

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

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

What each ingredient does

Cold meat
Forms the bulk of the loaf and gives it its substance.
Veal stock
Provides moisture and, as it sets, binds the meat into a firm jelly.
Gelatin
Helps the stock set firmly so the loaf holds its shape when turned out.

The step that matters

Setting the stock. Veal stock must be chilled and firm enough to set. If it does not gel, gelatin is added to supply the setting power, since gelatin forms a network as it cools that traps liquid and holds the loaf together.

Swap the mace

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (meat, clove, allspice, veal, cinnamon, pepper, gelatin):

  1. Nutmegfits better
  2. Thymefits better
  3. Cardamomfits better
  4. Macethe original

Fit is the average pairing score against meat, clove, allspice, veal, cinnamon, pepper, gelatin. 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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