Why it works: Wheat and flour are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 12% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 4,373 recipes. Both carry isobutyraldehyde, which smells malty, green. The science ↓
Veal Pie
Ingredients
Directions
The book says “a quick oven”. The 400°F (200°C) in the steps is the modern equivalent, not the book's own figure.
Prepare the veal
Place the veal in a stew pan and cover with water. Add salt and bring to a boil, skimming off any scum.
Cook until the meat is tender, then remove it to cool and take out any small bones.
Assemble the pie
Butter a 2-quart baking dish and line it with pie paste. Fill it halfway with the parboiled veal.
Dot the meat with pieces of butter, sprinkle with pepper, and dust with flour until it looks white.
Pour in enough of the reserved boiling water to nearly fill the dish.
Roll out the top crust to about ½ inch thick, cut a slit in the center, and make small incisions on either side.
Place the crust on top, trim the edges, and bake for 1 hour in a 400°F (200°C) oven.
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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Wheat + flourtop 12% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together4,373 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
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Butter + flourtop 12% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together124,287 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
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Butter + wheattop 14% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together2,002 recipes
Shared aroma: (z)-4-heptenal (biscuit, cream).
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Wheat + peppertop 15% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together984 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).
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Flour + peppertop 19% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together50,459 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
Butter and flour 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
- Provides the meat that becomes tender during simmering and forms the pie's filling.
- Wheat flour
- Dusted over the meat to thicken the cooking liquid and give the filling body.
- Butter
- Melts over the meat, adding richness and moisture to the filling.
- Water from boiling the veal
- Forms a savory broth that moistens the filling and fills the dish.
The step that matters
Pour in the reserved boiling water. The broth should nearly fill the dish without overflowing. Adding it hot keeps the filling warm so the crust bakes evenly while the flour thickens the liquid.
“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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