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Veal and Ham Pie

A savory pie with layers of veal, ham, hard‑boiled eggs, and a tomato‑herb gravy, topped with pastry.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 12 ingredients
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Why it works: Tomato and pepper are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 7% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 17,923 recipes. Both carry 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine, which smells earthy, pea. The science ↓

Veal and Ham Pie

Ingredients

Directions

The book gives no oven temperature. The 300°F (150°C) in the steps was added when the recipe was transcribed, as a starting point.

Make the gravy

  1. Stew veal bones and scraps in 1 pint of water until reduced by half.

  2. Strain and discard solids.

  3. Add minced onion, tomato sauce, chopped herbs, and pepper to the gravy. Cook for 5 minutes.

  4. Let the gravy cool.

Assemble the pie

  1. In a pudding dish, layer veal, lightly peppered and dusted with flour.

  2. Add a layer of ham, then a layer of sliced hard-boiled eggs with a bit of butter on each.

  3. Repeat layers until all ingredients are used, adding lemon juice or capers if desired.

  4. Pour the cooled gravy over the layers.

  5. Cover with pastry.

  6. Cut a slit in the middle of the pastry.

Bake

  1. Bake at 300°F (150°C) for 1.5 hours (medium pie) or 2 hours (large pie).

  2. Cover with clean paper for the first hour.

  3. Maintain a steady oven temperature.

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. Tomato + peppertop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together17,923 recipes

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

  2. Onion + tomatotop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together20,633 recipes

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

  3. Onion + peppertop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together68,474 recipes

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

  4. Tomato + saucetop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together5,469 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

  5. Egg + flourtop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together106,462 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

Egg and flour barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 106,462 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
Provides the main meaty body and, with the bone gravy, a savoury flavour.
Hard-boiled eggs
Add firm, sliced layers that hold their shape and enrich the filling.
Ham
Adds salty, savoury flavour that balances the mild veal.
Flour
Dusted on the veal, it helps thicken the gravy as the pie bakes.
Onion
Adds aromatic sweetness and depth to the gravy as it cooks.

The step that matters

Let the gravy cool before pouring it over the layers. Hot liquid would warm the raw meat and butter unevenly and can soften the pastry from below, so cooling the gravy keeps the filling and crust in better condition before baking.

Swap the onion

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (veal, ham, egg, tomato, sauce, pepper, flour):

  1. Capsicumfits better
  2. Asparagusfits better
  3. Shallotfits better
  4. Onionthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against veal, ham, egg, tomato, sauce, pepper, 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.

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