Name: Hot Veal Pie
Ingredients: 1 pound fillet of veal; ½ pound fresh pork or sausage meat; ½ pound beef marrow; parsley (to taste); shallots (to taste); coarse sea salt (to taste); fine spices (to taste); yolks of eggs (as needed); wheat flour (for rolling); cooked asparagus tops (as needed); cooked veal sweetbreads (as needed); cooked artichoke bottoms (as needed); cooked mushrooms (as needed); cooked crawfish tails (as needed); thin slices of fat (for covering); light pastry (for upper crust); 1 egg yolk (for washing)

Why it works: Parsley and shallot match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 3,737 recipes. Both carry 2,4-decadienal, which smells seaweed. The science ↓

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.

Parsley + shallottop 1% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together3,737 recipes

Shared aroma: 2,4-decadienal (seaweed).
Pork + beeftop 1% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together5,690 recipes

Shared aroma: 12-methyltridecanal (tallowy, beefy).
Shallot + flourtop 6% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together2,081 recipes

Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
Shallot + wheattop 11% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together38 recipes

Shared aroma: 2,4-decadienal (seaweed).
Beef + wheattop 11% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together319 recipes

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

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

What each ingredient does

Fillet of veal: Forms the main body of the forcemeat balls, giving them substance and a meaty bite.
Fresh pork or sausage meat: Adds fat and moisture to the forcemeat so the balls stay tender rather than dry.
Beef marrow: Contributes richness and fat that keeps the finely chopped meat moist and flavorful.
Yolks of eggs: Bind the chopped meat mixture so the balls hold their shape during baking.
Light pastry: Forms the upper crust that encloses the filling and browns in the oven.
Wheat flour: Dusts the forcemeat balls, helping keep their surface dry and aiding light browning.

The step that matters

Sealing the edges well. Sealing the pastry edges keeps juices and steam inside the pie, so the filling stays moist and cooks evenly instead of leaking out during baking.

Swap the parsley

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (veal, pork, beef, shallot, egg, wheat, flour):

Capersfits better
Turmericfits about as well
Nutmegfits about as well
Parsleythe original

Fit is the average pairing score against veal, pork, beef, shallot, egg, wheat, flour. 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.

Hot Veal Pie

Hot Veal Pie

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the forcemeat

Assemble the pie

Bake and serve