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A Sweet Veal Pie

A pie of veal with candied citron, orange, currants, raisins, sweet wine, cinnamon, suet, and puff pastry.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 10 ingredients
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Why it works: Raisin and cinnamon are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 5,390 recipes. Both carry 1-octen-3-ol, which smells mushroom, earthy. The science ↓

A Sweet Veal Pie

Oven, in the book's wordsA moderate oven

Ingredients

Directions

The book says “a moderate oven”. The 350°F (175°C) in the steps is the modern equivalent, not the book's own figure.

Prepare the filling

  1. Preheat the oven to 350°F (175°C).

  2. Lay marrow or beef suet in the bottom of a dish.

  3. Cut the veal into steaks and place them in the dish.

  4. Sprinkle some marrow or suet over the veal to tenderize it.

  5. Stir and chop the jar raisins, then add them to the dish.

  6. Wash the currants and layer them over the steaks.

  7. Cut the candied citron and orange, and place them on top.

Add the wine and bake

  1. Boil the sweet wine or sack with the stick of cinnamon, then pour it into the dish.

  2. Cover the dish with puff pastry and seal it well.

  3. Bake for one hour, then add a glass of French brandy or shrub before serving.

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. Raisin + cinnamontop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together5,390 recipes

    Shared aroma: 1-octen-3-ol (mushroom, earthy).

  2. Orange + cinnamontop 3% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together3,437 recipes

    Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).

  3. Currant + brandytop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together3,057 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl cinnamate (sweet, balsamic).

  4. Currant + raisintop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together6,180 recipes

    Shared aroma: gamma-nonanolactone (coconut, creamy).

  5. Beef + vealtop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together3,784 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2,6-nonadienal (cucumber, green).

Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs

What each ingredient does

Veal
Provides the main meat, which becomes tender during slow baking.
Marrow or beef suet
Adds richness and moisture, helping keep the veal tender while it bakes.
Currants
Add sweetness and a chewy, juicy texture to the filling.
Raisins
Add sweetness and chewy texture, and moisture as they plump in the filling.
Puff pastry
Forms a flaky crust that seals the dish and bakes to a golden brown.
Candied citron and orange
Add sweet, bright citrus flavour and aromatic peel notes to the filling.

The step that matters

Sealing the puff pastry. A tight seal keeps steam and aroma inside the dish, so the filling cooks gently in its own moisture. A gap lets juices escape and dries the meat.

Flavor stand-ins for the currant

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (orange, raisin, cinnamon, beef, veal, brandy):

  1. Figbetter flavor fit
  2. Lemonbetter flavor fit
  3. Applebetter flavor fit
  4. Currantthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against orange, raisin, cinnamon, beef, veal, brandy. Candidates are from the same food group and used in at least 100 recipes. This compares flavor only: it does not check the job the ingredient does in the dish (bulk, moisture, acidity, structure).

“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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