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Veal Loaf

A baked loaf of ground veal mixed with ham, bread crumbs, lemon rind, onion juice, celery salt, butter, and hot water.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 8 ingredients
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Why it works: Lemon and celery match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 3% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 3,467 recipes. Both carry beta-phellandrene, which smells minty, terpene. The science ↓

Veal Loaf

Oven, in the book's wordsA brisk oven

Ingredients

Directions

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

Prepare the meat

  1. Wipe the veal and remove any bone, fat, or gristle.

  2. Pass the lean meat through a grinder.

Mix and bake

  1. Mix all the ingredients well and pack into a well-greased small pan, at least 2 inches deep.

  2. Place in a brisk oven at 400°F (200°C) for 30 minutes, then reduce the heat to 350°F (175°C) and bake until brown.

  3. In a small saucepan, melt the butter with the hot water and use this for basting the meat several times during cooking.

Cool and serve

  1. When done, remove from the oven and let it cool in the pan until lukewarm, then turn out.

  2. Serve cold, cut into thin slices, and garnish with watercress or slices of lemon.

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. Lemon + celerytop 3% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together3,467 recipes

    Shared aroma: beta-phellandrene (minty, terpene).

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

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

  3. Onion + celerytop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together18,518 recipes

    Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).

  4. Ham + breadtop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,536 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-acetyl-1-pyrroline (popcorn, roasted).

  5. Onion + buttertop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together42,912 recipes

    Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).

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 sets into sliceable firmness when cooked.
Stale bread crumbs
Absorb juices and help bind the meat so the loaf holds together when sliced.
Butter
Adds fat and richness, and browns the surface when basted onto the loaf.
Lean boiled ham
Adds savory, salty flavor throughout the loaf.

The step that matters

Basting with butter and hot water. Lean meat dries out in the oven, so repeated basting keeps the surface moist and helps it brown evenly rather than drying into a crust.

Swap the lemon

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (veal, ham, bread, onion, celery, butter):

  1. Lemonthe original
  2. Applefits about as well
  3. Figfits less well
  4. Coconutfits less well

Fit is the average pairing score against veal, ham, bread, onion, celery, butter. 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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