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Veal and Ham Pie

A savory pie of veal cutlets, boiled ham, herbs, spices, lemon peel, egg yolks, and gravy, encased in puff pastry.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
By Isabella Beeton · From a historical cookbook (Project Gutenberg) · 35 ingredients
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Why it works: Parsley and lemon match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 14,037 recipes. Both carry beta-phellandrene, which smells minty, terpene. The science ↓

Veal and Ham Pie

Ingredients

Directions

Assemble the pie

  1. Cut the veal into nice square pieces, and put a layer of them at the bottom of a pie-dish.

  2. Sprinkle over these a portion of the herbs, spices, seasoning, lemon-peel, and the yolks of the eggs cut in slices.

  3. Cut the ham very thin, and put a layer of this in.

  4. Proceed in this manner until the dish is full, so arranging it that the ham comes at the top.

  5. Lay a puff-paste on the edge of the dish, and pour in about 1/2 pint of water.

Bake and serve

  1. Cover with crust, ornament it with leaves, brush it over with the yolk of an egg.

  2. Bake in a well-heated oven for 1 to 1-1/2 hour, or longer, should the pie be very large.

  3. When it is taken out of the oven, pour in at the top, through a funnel, nearly 1/2 pint of strong gravy.

Nutrition, whole recipe (rough)

234Calories
12 gProtein
7 gFat
28 gCarbs

Counts 11 of 13 ingredients. The other 2 aren't in our nutrition table and add nothing above, so the real totals are higher.

What these numbers assume: 11 portions
IngredientPortion assumedkcal
Egg1 large egg (50g)78
Onion1 medium (110g)44
Wine2 tbsp cooking wine (30ml)25
Carrot1 medium (61g)25
Tomato1 medium (123g)22
Mushroom1/2 cup sliced (35g)15
Nutmeg1 tsp ground (2.2g)12
Black Pepper1 tsp ground (2.3g)6
Cayenne1 tsp (1.8g)6
Parsley1 tbsp chopped fresh (3.8g)1
Salt1 tsp (6g)0
Waternot in our table0
Macenot in our table0

One typical portion per ingredient; the recipe's quantities are not counted. A rough guide only, not for medical or dietary planning.

By Isabella Beeton. Recipe from a historical cookbook (Project Gutenberg).

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.

  1. Parsley + lemontop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together14,037 recipes

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

  2. Nutmeg + parsleytop 3% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together5,062 recipes

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

  3. Nutmeg + macetop 4% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together6,557 recipes

    Shared aroma: myristicin (spice, warm).

  4. Mushroom + sherrytop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,176 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-methoxy-4-methylphenol (smoky, clove).

  5. Nutmeg + lemontop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together11,318 recipes

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

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

What each ingredient does

Veal (in the method)
Forms the main body of the pie, becoming tender and moist as it cooks slowly under crust.
Ham (in the method)
Adds savoury, salty flavour and is layered so it sits at the top of the pie.
Eggs
Yolks are layered through the filling and the beaten yolk gives the crust a golden browning.
Puff-paste (in the method)
Forms the crust that seals the pie and browns in the oven.

The step that matters

Pouring in the gravy after baking. The gravy is added only once the pie leaves the oven, so it stays liquid and fills the spaces left as the meat cooks and shrinks. Pouring it in through a funnel at the top keeps the crust intact.

Swap the mace

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (nutmeg, mushroom, ketchup, sherry, parsley, egg, lemon):

  1. Marjoramfits better
  2. Thymefits better
  3. Tarragonfits better
  4. Macethe original

Fit is the average pairing score against nutmeg, mushroom, ketchup, sherry, parsley, egg, lemon. 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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