Why it works: Milk and butter 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 ↓
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
Preheat the oven to 350°F (175°C).
In a large bowl, combine the veal, salt pork, eggs, crushed crackers, milk, salt, pepper, and 2 tablespoons of butter. Mix the ingredients thoroughly until well combined.
Shape and bake
Shape the mixture into long rolls and place them in a baking dish. Dot the rolls with additional butter.
Bake for 2 hours, basting often with a mixture of water and butter, slightly seasoned.
Serve
Allow to cool before slicing.
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.
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Milk + buttertop 7% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together81,283 recipes
Shared aroma: (z)-4-heptenal (biscuit, cream).
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Veal + porktop 11% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together4,930 recipes
Shared aroma: 4-heptenal (creamy, biscuit).
-
Pork + milktop 12% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together4,386 recipes
Shared aroma: 4-heptenal (creamy, biscuit).
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Pork + buttertop 13% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together13,933 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-furfurylthiol (coffee, roasted).
-
Pork + peppertop 16% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together22,121 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
- Forms the main body of the loaf and gives it its meaty structure.
- Eggs
- Bind the mixture so the loaf holds its shape when sliced.
- Crackers
- Absorb moisture and add bulk, helping keep the loaf tender.
- Salt pork
- Adds fat and richness, keeping the loaf moist during baking.
- Butter
- Adds fat and flavor, and the basting helps the surface brown and stay moist.
The step that matters
Allow to cool before slicing. A hot loaf is still soft and set only partly, so cutting it early can cause it to crumble. Resting lets the proteins firm up and the juices settle, giving clean slices.
“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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