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Veal and Ham Pates

A savory pâté made from minced veal and ham with mushrooms, breadcrumbs, and seasonings, baked in pastry shells.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 12 ingredients
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Why it works: Pepper and lemon match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 3% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 27,047 recipes. Both carry trans-2-nonenal, which smells cardboard, fatty. The science ↓

Veal and Ham Pates

Ingredients

Directions

The book gives no oven temperature. The 400°F (200°C) in the steps was added when the recipe was transcribed, as a starting point.

Prepare the filling

  1. Mix the minced veal and ham in a bowl.

  2. Add chopped champignons, breadcrumbs, salt, cayenne, lemon juice, and catsup.

  3. Wet the mixture with stock or butter and water until combined.

Cook and fill

  1. Heat the mixture in a double boiler until it reaches a smoking boil.

  2. Remove from heat and stir in the beaten egg and sherry.

  3. Fill the hot pastry shells with the mixture.

Bake

  1. Bake in the oven at 400°F (200°C) for 2–3 minutes, ensuring the mixture does not cook.

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. Pepper + lemontop 3% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together27,047 recipes

    Shared aroma: trans-2-nonenal (cardboard, fatty).

  2. Butter + sherrytop 14% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together3,505 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl octanoate (fruity, wine).

  3. Ham + sherrytop 14% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together377 recipes

    Shared aroma: 4-ethyl-2-methoxyphenol (smoky, clove).

  4. Veal + hamtop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together3,264 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2,4-decadienal (seaweed).

  5. Lemon + buttertop 16% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together41,227 recipes

    Shared aroma: 3-hexenal (apple, fruity).

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

What each ingredient does

Cold cooked veal
Provides the main meaty body and texture of the pâté.
Cold cooked ham
Adds savory, salty flavor alongside the veal.
Beaten egg
Binds the mixture and helps it set as it cooks.
Fine breadcrumbs
Absorb liquid and help hold the minced meat together.
Champignons
Add moisture and earthy mushroom flavor.
Sherry
Adds aromatic, slightly sweet and nutty flavor.

The step that matters

Remove from heat before stirring in the egg. Egg proteins begin to set at moderate temperatures, so adding it to a very hot mixture can scramble it into lumps and prevent a smooth, bound filling.

“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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