Name: Calf's-foot and Kidney Pie
Ingredients: Slices of kidney fat from a cold roasted loin of veal; Pounded ham; Pieces of kidney; Meat from a calf's foot; Few hard-boiled eggs; Forcemeat balls (savory with oysters, an anchovy, and bacon fat); Juice of ½ lemon or 1 tablespoon Harvey sauce

Why it works: Oyster and anchovy work together. They rank in the top 8% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 603 recipes. Both carry decanal, which smells soap, orange peel. The science ↓

Calf's-foot and Kidney Pie

Ingredients

Slices of kidney fat from a cold roasted loin of veal
Pounded ham
Pieces of kidney
Meat from a calf's foot
Few hard-boiled eggs
Forcemeat balls (savory with oysters, an anchovy, and bacon fat)
Juice of ½ lemon or 1 tablespoon Harvey sauce

Directions

The book gives no oven temperature. The 350°F (175°C) in the steps was added when the recipe was transcribed, as a starting point.

Assemble the pie

Preheat your oven to 350°F (175°C).
In a dish, layer the kidney fat slices and pounded ham.
Add the kidney pieces and calf's foot meat.
Include hard-boiled eggs and savory forcemeat balls.

Bake and serve

Mix the lemon juice or Harvey sauce into the gravy and pour over the pie.
Bake for about 2 hours until cooked through.

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.

Oyster + anchovytop 8% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together603 recipes

Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).
Egg + anchovytop 12% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together2,330 recipes

Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).
Meat + anchovytop 13% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together335 recipes

Shared aroma: 1-octen-3-ol (mushroom, earthy).
Ham + meattop 13% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together1,095 recipes

Shared aroma: 1-octen-3-one (mushroom, metallic).
Ham + oystertop 13% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together360 recipes

Shared aroma: 1-octen-3-one (mushroom, metallic).

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

What each ingredient does

Calf's foot meat: Releases gelatin as it cooks, helping the filling set and feel rich.
Kidney fat: Adds richness and moisture, keeping the meat tender during baking.
Hard-boiled eggs: Provide firm set texture and a mild, creamy contrast to the meat.
Lemon juice: Adds acidity that brightens the rich meat and gravy flavors.

The step that matters

Baking until cooked through. Kidney and calf's foot meat are dense, so the pie needs enough time for the center to reach a safe, fully cooked temperature. Underbaking leaves raw meat, while the gelatin from the foot needs sustained heat to melt and set the gravy properly.

“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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Meatballs37 recipes

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Calf's-foot and Kidney Pie