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Savouby Ham Patties

Ham patties made with minced ham, whipped cream, spices, bound with egg yolk, baked in puff pastry.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 8 ingredients
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Why it works: Pepper and parsley match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 2% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 34,122 recipes. Both carry 4'-methylacetophenone, which smells bitter almond. The science ↓

Savouby Ham Patties

Oven, in the book's wordsA hot oven

Ingredients

Directions

The book says “a hot oven”. The 400°F (200°C) in the steps is the modern equivalent, not the book's own figure.

Prepare the filling

  1. Chop or mince the ham finely.

  2. Mix the ham with whipped cream, pepper, ground mace, and Erona pepper.

  3. Bind the mixture with the yolk of egg.

Fill and bake

  1. Fill small puff pastry cases with the mixture.

  2. Place in a 400°F (200°C) oven for a few minutes until heated through.

Serve

  1. Cover, dish up, and garnish with fresh parsley or watercress 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. Pepper + parsleytop 2% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together34,122 recipes

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

  2. Mace + parsleytop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together4,268 recipes

    Shared aroma: myristicin (spice, warm).

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

    Shared aroma: myristicin (spice, warm).

  4. Ham + eggtop 17% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together4,526 recipes

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

  5. Cream + macetop 18% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together4,009 recipes

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

Lean ham
Provides the main savoury meat flavour and body of the filling.
Whipped cream
Adds moisture and richness, keeping the filling soft and creamy.
Egg yolk
Binds the mixture so it holds together in the cases.
Puff pastry cases
Provide a crisp, flaky shell that browns in the oven.

The step that matters

Binding the mixture with the yolk. The yolk must be mixed in evenly so the filling holds together when baked. Too little binding lets the cream loosen and run, while the filling should stay moist rather than become dry or grainy.

Swap the mace

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

  1. Nutmegfits better
  2. Tarragonfits better
  3. Celeryfits better
  4. Macethe original

Fit is the average pairing score against ham, cream, pepper, egg, parsley. 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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