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Bewitched Veal

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

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 10 ingredients
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Why it works: Butter and bread are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 7% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 27,232 recipes. Both carry delta-decalactone, which smells sweet, creamy. 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 pork very fine.

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

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

Bake and serve

  1. Form the mixture into a compact loaf and sprinkle with bread crumbs.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

  4. Milk + breadtop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together11,466 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-undecenal (sweet).

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

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

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, giving it its meaty structure once cooked.
Eggs
Bind the chopped meat together so the loaf holds its shape when sliced.
Fat salt pork
Adds fat that keeps the lean veal moist during the long bake.
Milk
Adds moisture that keeps the loaf tender rather than dry.

The step that matters

Bake covered for the full time. Lean veal dries out easily in the oven, so covering the loaf while it bakes traps steam and keeps the meat moist. Baking through the full 1 to 2 hours ensures the centre is fully cooked and firm.

Swap the onion

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

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

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