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Veal and Ham Pie

A savory pie filled with veal and ham, topped with a buttery crust.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 10 ingredients
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Why it works: Parsley and thyme match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 9,057 recipes. Both carry cuminaldehyde, which smells Spicy, cumin. The science ↓

Veal and Ham Pie

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 the filling

  1. Cut the veal into thin scallops, discarding any rough parts.

  2. Slice the ham very thinly.

  3. Mix the chopped parsley and thyme, then sprinkle over the veal.

  4. Layer the veal and ham in a dish, seasoning with pepper and herbs between layers.

  5. Add a little brown gravy to the dish.

Make the crust

  1. For the crust, rub the butter into the flour until crumbly.

  2. Mix in the egg yolks and enough cold water to form a dough.

Assemble and bake

  1. Roll out the dough and cover the pie, sealing the edges.

  2. Bake in a preheated oven at 350°F (175°C) until golden brown.

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. Parsley + thymetop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together9,057 recipes

    Shared aroma: cuminaldehyde (Spicy, cumin).

  2. Parsley + peppertop 2% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together34,122 recipes

    Shared aroma: 4'-methylacetophenone (bitter almond).

  3. Thyme + peppertop 4% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together11,585 recipes

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

  4. Flour + buttertop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together124,287 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  5. Parsley + flourtop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together16,675 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

Flour and butter barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 124,287 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
Forms the main meat filling, becoming tender and savory as it cooks through.
Ham
Adds salty, savory flavor that layers through the veal.
All-purpose flour
Forms the gluten network that gives the pie crust its structure.
Unsalted butter
Adds fat that makes the crust tender and flaky when rubbed into the flour.
Egg yolks
Add richness and help bind the dough while adding color on baking.
Brown gravy
Adds moisture and savory depth to the filling.

The step that matters

Rubbing the butter into the flour. Work the butter in only until crumbly so it stays in small pieces; these melt during baking and leave the crust flaky rather than tough. Keep the water cold for the same reason.

Swap the thyme

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (veal, ham, parsley, pepper, flour, butter, egg):

  1. Capersfits about as well
  2. Tarragonfits about as well
  3. Nutmegfits about as well
  4. Thymethe original

Fit is the average pairing score against veal, ham, parsley, pepper, flour, butter, egg. 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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