Skip to main content
Main

Veal and Ham Pie

A savory pie made with veal, ham, herbs, and a puff pastry crust, baked and topped with gravy.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
By Isabella Beeton · From a historical cookbook (Project Gutenberg) · 46 ingredients
Jump to recipe ↓

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.

  2. Put a layer of them at the bottom of a pie-dish.

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

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

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

  6. Lay a puff paste on the edge of the dish.

  7. Pour in about ½ pint of water.

  8. Cover with crust.

  9. Ornament it with leaves.

  10. Brush it over with the yolk of an egg.

Bake and finish

  1. Bake in a well-heated oven for 1 to 1½ hour, or longer if the pie is very large.

  2. When it is taken out of the oven, pour in at the top, through a funnel, nearly ½ pint of strong gravy.

  3. The gravy should be made sufficiently good that, when cold, it may cut in a firm jelly.

  4. This pie may be enriched by adding a few mushrooms, oysters, or sweetbreads, but it will be found very good without any of the last-named additions.

Nutrition, whole recipe (rough)

679Calories
20 gProtein
33 gFat
76 gCarbs

Counts 15 of 17 ingredients. The other 2 aren't in our nutrition table and add nothing above, so the real totals are higher.

What these numbers assume: 15 portions
IngredientPortion assumedkcal
Potato1 medium (173g) baked161
Vegetable1 tbsp (14g)120
Butter1 tbsp (14g)102
Egg1 large egg (50g)78
Pea1/2 cup (72g)62
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. Mushroom + sherrytop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,176 recipes

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

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

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

  5. Mushroom + tomatotop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,719 recipes

    Shared aroma: 1-octen-3-one (mushroom, metallic).

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 meat body, becoming tender during the long slow bake.
Ham (in the method)
Adds savoury, salty flavour to the layers of meat.
Eggs
Yolks add richness and colour to the filling and glaze the crust when brushed on.
Strong gravy
Sets to a firm jelly when cold, so the pie can be sliced cleanly.

The step that matters

Making the gravy for the jelly. Gravy poured in after baking must be rich in natural gelatin to set firm when cold. Weak gravy will not cut cleanly, leaving the pie runny.

Swap the peas

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

  1. Beansfits better
  2. Chickpeafits better
  3. Chestnutfits better
  4. Peasthe original

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

You might also like

Tomato SoupTomato Soup526 recipesPotato CroquettesPotato Croquettes255 recipesLemon SauceLemon Sauce236 recipesGreen PeasGreen Peas229 recipes