Why it works: Butter and cream are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 8% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 41,516 recipes. Both carry delta-dodecalactone, which smells sweet, creamy. The science ↓
Veal Pie
Ingredients
Directions
Prepare the filling
Place the veal in a pot with hot water enough to cover, add a little grated onion, a little grated carrot, butter the size of an egg, and nine small peeled potatoes.
Put the mixture in a sauce pan, add two tablespoonfuls flour and one tablespoon butter, brown nicely, then add one-half teacupful sweet cream.
Pour the veal mixture into the sauce pan, letting it boil up well.
Season to taste and put all in a bake dish.
Top and bake
Make a nice biscuit dough for the pie crust, and place over the bake dish, making about five holes in crust for ventilation.
Bake twenty minutes or less.
Fill holes with blackberry jelly and serve hot.
Nutrition, whole recipe (rough)
Counts 4 of 5 ingredients. The other 1 aren't in our nutrition table and add nothing above, so the real totals are higher.
What these numbers assume: 4 portions
| Ingredient | Portion assumed | kcal |
|---|---|---|
| Flour | 1 cup (125g) all-purpose | 455 |
| Potato | 1 medium (173g) baked | 161 |
| Butter | 1 tbsp (14g) | 102 |
| Cream | 1 tbsp (15ml) heavy | 51 |
| Veal | not in our table | 0 |
One typical portion per ingredient; the recipe's quantities are not counted. A rough guide only, not for medical or dietary planning.
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. See the original page.
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.
-
Butter + creamtop 8% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together41,516 recipes
Shared aroma: delta-dodecalactone (sweet, creamy).
-
Flour + buttertop 12% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together124,287 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
-
Butter + potatotop 13% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together6,456 recipes
Shared aroma: (z)-4-heptenal (biscuit, cream).
-
Flour + potatotop 15% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together5,355 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
-
Potato + creamtop 17% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together2,481 recipes
Shared aroma: 1-octen-3-one (mushroom, metallic).
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
- Provides the main meat, which becomes tender and flavorful as it simmers in the liquid.
- Flour
- Thickens the cream and cooking liquid into a smooth sauce that binds the filling.
- Sweet cream
- Adds richness and moisture, giving the filling a smooth, creamy body.
- Potatoes
- Add starch and bulk, softening as they cook and thickening the filling.
- Butter
- Adds fat and flavor, and helps brown the flour mixture for depth.
The step that matters
Boil the sauce after adding the cream. Letting the mixture boil well lets the flour fully cook and thicken the cream, so the filling is smooth rather than pasty or runny.
Swap the potato
How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (veal, flour, butter, cream):
- Leekfits better
- Shallotfits about as well
- Chivefits about as well
- Potatothe original
Fit is the average pairing score against veal, flour, butter, cream. 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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