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Veal and Ham Pie

A pastry pie filled with veal and ham, seasoned with salt and pepper.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 6 ingredients
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Why it works: Veal and ham are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 15% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 3,264 recipes. Both carry 2,4-decadienal, which smells seaweed. The science ↓

Veal and Ham Pie

Oven, in the book's wordsA moderate oven

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Make a pastry dough in the usual way.

  2. Prepare the veal and ham, then place them in the center of the rolled pastry, about ⅛ inch thick.

  3. Moisten the four corners of the pastry and fold them over the meat.

Bake

  1. Place the pie in a paper bag, seal it, and put it on a grid in a moderate oven at 300°F (150°C).

  2. Bake for 45 minutes for a 1‑pound pie, 1 hour for a 3‑pound pie, 1.5 hours for a 6‑pound pie, and 2 hours for a 10‑pound pie.

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. Veal + hamtop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together3,264 recipes

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

  2. Flour + peppertop 19% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together50,459 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  3. Veal + peppertop 19% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together10,049 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).

  4. Flour + creamtop 20% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together30,481 recipes

    Shared aroma: acetaldehyde (pungent, ethereal).

  5. Ham + creamtop 22% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together1,370 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
Forms the main meat filling, giving the pie its savoury body.
Ham
Adds salty, savoury flavour that complements the mild veal.
Pastry dough (in the method)
Encloses the meat and holds in moisture during baking.

The step that matters

Sealing the pastry edges. Moistening the corners before folding lets them bond, so the pastry stays closed and the meat cooks in its own juices rather than drying out or leaking during baking.

“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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