Skip to main content
Main

Veal Loaf

A loaf made from chopped veal, mushrooms, crackers, eggs, butter, salt, pepper, and cayenne, baked until browned.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 8 ingredients
Jump to recipe ↓

Why it works: Bread and butter 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 ↓

Veal Loaf

Oven, in the book's wordsA hot oven

Ingredients

Directions

The book says “a hot oven”. The 400°F (200°C) in the steps is the modern equivalent, not the book's own figure.

Prepare

  1. Chop the veal and mushrooms finely.

  2. In a bowl, combine veal, mushrooms, crackers, eggs, softened butter, salt, pepper, and cayenne.

  3. Mix the ingredients with your hands until well combined and moldable.

Shape and bake

  1. Shape into one or more loaves and place in a buttered baking pan.

  2. Dust the tops with additional cracker or bread-crumbs.

  3. Bake in a hot oven at 400°F (200°C) until browned.

Serve

  1. Serve hot or cool in molds for later slicing.

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. Bread + buttertop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together27,232 recipes

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

  2. Mushroom + buttertop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together12,525 recipes

    Shared aroma: trans-2-decenal (waxy, orange).

  3. Mushroom + breadtop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,536 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).

  4. Mushroom + peppertop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together13,580 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).

  5. Bread + eggtop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together22,662 recipes

    Shared aroma: (e)-2-octenal (fatty, green).

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

What each ingredient does

Veal
Provides the main meat body that gives the loaf its substance and savory flavor.
Raw eggs
Bind the mixture and set when baked, holding the loaf together in slices.
Crackers or bread-crumbs
Absorb moisture and give the loaf structure so it holds its shape.
Mushrooms
Add moisture and earthy flavor to the mixture.
Butter
Adds richness and helps the top brown in the oven.

The step that matters

Mixing the ingredients until well combined and moldable. Raw meat proteins must be evenly distributed with the eggs and crumbs so the loaf binds and slices cleanly. Under-mixing leaves crumbly pockets, while the cold meat should stay cold so the fat does not smear and the texture stays firm.

“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 recipesWhite BreadWhite Bread80 recipesBread OmeletteBread Omelette60 recipesMushroom SoupMushroom Soup60 recipes