Name: Veal Pie
Ingredients: 2 pounds veal, cut into small pieces or slices; ½ cup hot water; 1 tablespoon coarse sea salt; Butter, for greasing; Pie paste (for lining the dish); Pepper, to taste; Wheat flour, for dredging; Butter, in pieces the size of a hickory nut; Optional: ½ pound corned pork, cut into thin slices and parboiled

Why it works: Veal and pork are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 11% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 4,930 recipes. Both carry 4-heptenal, which smells creamy, biscuit. The science ↓

Veal Pie

Oven, in the book's wordsA quick oven

Ingredients

2 pounds veal, cut into small pieces or slices
½ cup hot water
1 tablespoon coarse sea salt
Butter, for greasing
Pie paste (for lining the dish)
Pepper, to taste
Wheat flour, for dredging
Butter, in pieces the size of a hickory nut
Optional: ½ pound corned pork, cut into thin slices and parboiled

Directions

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

Cook the veal

Combine veal and hot water in a stewpan until covered. Add salt and bring to a boil, skimming off any scum.
Cook until the meat is tender.
Transfer the meat to a dish to cool and remove all small bones.

Assemble the pie

Grease a tin or earthen basin with butter and line it with pie paste.
Layer half of the parboiled meat in the lined dish.
Add pieces of butter, sprinkle with pepper, and dredge with flour until white.
Pour in some of the cooking water until nearly full.

Bake

Roll out a top crust to about ½ inch thick.
Cut a slit in the center of the crust and make small incisions on either side.
Place the crust on top, trim the edges, and bake for 1 hour at 400°F (200°C).

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.

Veal + porktop 11% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together4,930 recipes

Shared aroma: 4-heptenal (creamy, biscuit).
Wheat + flourtop 12% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together4,373 recipes

Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
Butter + flourtop 12% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together124,287 recipes

Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
Wheat + porktop 13% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together213 recipes

Shared aroma: (e,z)-2,6-nonadienal (cucumber, melon).
Butter + porktop 13% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together13,933 recipes

Shared aroma: 2-furfurylthiol (coffee, roasted).

Butter and flour 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: Forms the main body of the filling and becomes tender when simmered in water.
Wheat flour: Dredged over the meat to lightly thicken the cooking liquid into a sauce.
Butter: Adds richness and moisture to the filling as it melts during baking.
Pie paste: Forms the crust that holds the filling and bakes to a golden, structured case.

“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.