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Veal Loaf

A loaf made from ground veal and pork, mixed with egg, crackers, milk, salt, and cayenne pepper, baked until cooked.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
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Why it works: Veal and pork are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 11% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 4,930 recipes. Both carry 4-heptenal, which smells creamy, biscuit. The science ↓

Veal Loaf

Ingredients

Directions

The book gives no oven temperature. The 350°F (175°C) in the steps was added when the recipe was transcribed, as a starting point.

Prepare

  1. Preheat the oven to 350°F (175°C).

Mix and shape

  1. In a large bowl, combine the ground veal, ground pork, beaten egg, rolled crackers, milk, salt, and cayenne pepper, then mix all ingredients thoroughly.

  2. Mold the mixture into a loaf shape and place it in a baking dish.

Bake and serve

  1. Bake in the preheated oven until cooked through.

  2. Once cooled, slice the loaf, garnish with parsley, and serve.

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

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

  2. Pork + milktop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together4,386 recipes

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

  3. Pork + peppertop 16% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together22,121 recipes

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

  4. Egg + milktop 18% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together88,785 recipes

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

  5. Veal + peppertop 19% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together10,049 recipes

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

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

What each ingredient does

Veal
Lean ground meat that forms the main body and bulk of the loaf.
Pork
Adds fat that keeps the loaf juicy and gives it richer flavour.
Egg
Binds the mixture so the loaf holds its shape when sliced.
Rolled crackers
Soak up liquid and add a soft, tender structure that keeps the loaf moist.
Milk
Adds moisture that keeps the meat tender during baking.

The step that matters

Bake until cooked through. Ground meat has its bacteria spread throughout, not just on the surface, so the centre must be fully cooked. Slicing too early, before it has cooled and set, can also cause it to crumble.

“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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