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Veal Pot-pie

A stew of veal and pork topped with raised dough crust.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 7 ingredients
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Why it works: Pork and potato are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 5% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 2,668 recipes. Both carry sotolon, which smells curry, maple. The science ↓

Veal Pot-pie

Ingredients

Directions

Make the filling

  1. Fry a few slices of pork in a soup pot.

  2. Cut the veal and knuckle into small pieces and add to the pot.

  3. Season with pepper and salt, then cover the meat with cold water.

  4. Boil for 2 to 3 hours.

  5. Add 6 to 8 small potatoes.

  6. If needed, adjust seasoning with more pepper or salt.

Add the crust and serve

  1. Roll out the raised dough to about ½ inch thick and cut into pieces.

  2. Cover the meat with the dough pieces.

  3. Cover the pot tightly and let it stew for 30 minutes.

  4. When serving, place the crust around the dish and add the meat and potatoes in the center.

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. Pork + potatotop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,668 recipes

    Shared aroma: sotolon (curry, maple).

  2. Pepper + potatotop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together8,305 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).

  3. Veal + porktop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together4,930 recipes

    Shared aroma: 4-heptenal (creamy, biscuit).

  4. Pork + peppertop 16% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together22,121 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).

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

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

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

What each ingredient does

Scrag and knuckle of veal
Long simmering breaks down connective tissue, making the meat tender and the broth rich.
Slices of pork
Rendered fat adds richness and savory flavor to the pot.
6 to 8 small potatoes
Starch thickens the broth slightly and adds body to the filling.
Raised dough
Forms a soft, bread-like crust that absorbs some of the cooking liquid and covers the filling.

The step that matters

Keeping the pot covered while the dough stews. Trapping steam keeps the liquid and heat steady so the dough cooks through and turns soft and moist rather than drying out or cooking unevenly.

Swap the potato

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (veal, pork, pepper):

  1. Capsicumfits better
  2. Potatothe original
  3. Tomatofits about as well
  4. Carrotfits about as well

Fit is the average pairing score against veal, pork, 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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