Why it works: Egg and flour are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 15% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 106,462 recipes. Both carry isobutyraldehyde, which smells malty, green. The science ↓
Veal Pie
Ingredients
Directions
Prepare the filling
Boil the veal and bacon in a little water until nearly tender.
Roll out the crust (sour milk crust is good).
Cut the crust to fit a deep pie dish.
Place the crust around the sides of the dish but not on the bottom.
Place a teacup in the middle of the dish.
Layer the meat inside the teacup.
Beat the raw egg with a little flour.
Add the beaten egg and flour to the gravy.
Season the mixture with pepper, salt, and catsup.
Assemble the pie
Pour half of the mixture over the meat.
Save the remaining mixture for later.
Cover the pie with the remaining crust.
Wet the edges of the crust to seal.
Bake
Bake until golden brown.
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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Egg + flourtop 15% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together106,462 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
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Flour + peppertop 19% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together50,459 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
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Veal + peppertop 19% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together10,049 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).
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Veal + eggtop 28% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together6,845 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).
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Veal + flourtop 28% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together5,886 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
Egg and flour barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 106,462 recipes: they work on texture and structure more than aroma.
Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs
What each ingredient does
- Veal
- Provides the main meaty body, becoming tender as it is simmered before baking.
- Bacon
- Adds fat and savory flavor that carries into the gravy and meat.
- Raw egg
- Sets when heated, helping bind the gravy into a filling that holds its shape.
- Flour
- Thickens the gravy and gives structure to the crust.
The step that matters
Stirring the beaten egg and flour into the gravy. Flour must be well dispersed to thicken evenly without lumps, and the raw egg sets when heated, so it should be fully blended into the gravy before the pie is baked.
“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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