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Teal and Ham Patties

A pastry patty filled with veal and ham mixture.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 12 ingredients
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Why it works: Bread and butter are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 7% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 27,232 recipes. Both carry delta-decalactone, which smells sweet, creamy. The science ↓

Teal and Ham Patties

Oven, in the book's wordsA hot oven

Ingredients

Directions

The book says “a hot oven”. The 400°F in the steps is the modern equivalent, not the book's own figure. The book gives no cooking times; the times in the steps were added in transcription, so check for doneness rather than trusting the clock.

Prepare the pastry

  1. Roll out the pastry to ½ inch thick and cut into squares for the patty pans.

  2. Line each patty pan with a piece of bread.

  3. Cover with pastry, wetting the edges to seal.

Make the filling

  1. Chop the veal and ham.

  2. Combine the chopped veal and ham in a stew pan with butter, flour, cream, broth, nutmeg, pepper, salt, and parsley.

  3. Cook over low heat for 6-8 minutes, stirring constantly.

Bake and fill

  1. Bake in a hot oven (400°F / 200°C) for 15 minutes.

  2. Remove the lid.

  3. Take out the bread.

  4. Fill the patties with the veal and ham mixture.

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. Bread + buttertop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together27,232 recipes

    Shared aroma: delta-decalactone (sweet, creamy).

  2. Nutmeg + peppertop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together13,015 recipes

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

  3. Bread + hamtop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,536 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-acetyl-1-pyrroline (popcorn, roasted).

  4. Butter + creamtop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together41,516 recipes

    Shared aroma: delta-dodecalactone (sweet, creamy).

  5. Flour + nutmegtop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together18,623 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

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

What each ingredient does

Puff pastry
Forms a flaky, crisp shell that holds the filling.
Veal
Provides the main meaty body of the filling.
Ham
Adds savory, salty flavor to the filling.
Butter
Adds richness and carries flavor into the filling.
Flour
Thickens the cream and broth into a cohesive filling.
Cream
Adds moisture and richness, giving the filling a smooth texture.

The step that matters

Cook the filling over low heat. Stirring constantly over low heat keeps the flour-thickened cream from scorching or lumping, giving a smooth, cohesive filling before it goes into the pastry.

Swap the nutmeg

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (bread, veal, ham, butter, flour, cream, pepper):

  1. Nutmegthe original
  2. Parsleyfits about as well
  3. Celeryfits less well
  4. Capersfits less well

Fit is the average pairing score against bread, veal, ham, butter, flour, cream, pepper. 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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