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Veal Pie

A savory pie with veal cutlets, bacon or ham, herbs, mace, and gravy.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 8 ingredients
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Why it works: Veal and ham are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 15% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 3,264 recipes. Both carry 2,4-decadienal, which smells seaweed. The science ↓

Veal Pie

Ingredients

Directions

The book gives no oven temperature. The 400°F (200°C) in the steps was added when the recipe was transcribed, as a starting point.

Prepare the filling

  1. Cut the veal cutlets into square pieces.

  2. Season the cutlets with pepper, salt, and pounded mace.

  3. Place the seasoned cutlets in a pie dish.

  4. Sprinkle the savory herbs over the cutlets.

  5. Add 1 or 2 slices of cooked bacon or ham on top.

  6. Pour a little water into the pie dish.

Bake and serve

  1. Cover the pie with pie crust, decorating as desired.

  2. Brush the crust with egg yolk.

  3. Bake in a preheated oven at 400°F (200°C) for about 30 minutes.

  4. Remove the top ornament.

  5. Pour in the gravy.

  6. Replace the ornament.

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. Veal + hamtop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together3,264 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2,4-decadienal (seaweed).

  2. Pepper + macetop 16% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together12,257 recipes

    Shared aroma: myristicin (spice, warm).

  3. Veal + macetop 18% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together3,761 recipes

    Shared aroma: alpha-pinene (pine, turpentine).

  4. Veal + peppertop 19% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together10,049 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).

  5. Ham + peppertop 23% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together6,058 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2,4-decadienal (seaweed).

Pepper and mace barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 12,257 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 cutlets
Provide the main meat, which becomes tender and savory as it cooks under the crust.
Bacon or ham
Adds salty, smoky flavor that seasons the meat as it cooks.
Pie crust
Encloses the filling, trapping steam and forming the sealed pie that gives structure.
Egg yolk (in the method)
Brushed on the crust, it promotes golden browning during baking.
Gravy
Adds moisture and savory richness to the filling.

The step that matters

Pour in the gravy after baking. The gravy is added only after the bake, when the top ornament is removed and replaced; adding it too early can make the crust soggy and the meat cook unevenly.

Swap the mace

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

  1. Parsleyfits better
  2. Marjoramfits better
  3. Celeryfits better
  4. Macethe original

Fit is the average pairing score against veal, ham, pepper. 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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