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Veal Pot-pie

A savory pie made with veal simmered in broth and topped with a soft dough crust.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 8 ingredients
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Why it works: Butter and milk are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 7% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 81,283 recipes. Both carry (z)-4-heptenal, which smells biscuit, cream. The science ↓

Veal Pot-pie

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the meat

  1. Place the veal pieces in a pot with 1 quart of water.

  2. Heat over low fire until just before boiling.

  3. Skim the surface, then add ⅓ cup of cold water.

  4. Turn the meat to help scum rise, and remove all scum.

  5. Boil hard.

  6. Season with pepper and salt.

Make and cook the crust

  1. Mix flour, butter, and a little salt, then add enough milk to form a soft dough.

  2. Knead well.

  3. Let rise until light, about 1 hour in winter or 30 minutes in summer.

  4. Knead again, then let stand before cutting.

  5. Optionally, add baking soda in summer.

  6. Cut the crust into equal pieces without rolling or molding.

  7. Lay the crust pieces on top of the meat to cover it.

  8. Cover the pot tightly, wrapping a cloth around the lid if it doesn't fit tightly.

  9. Let it boil slowly for 1 hour.

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. Butter + milktop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together81,283 recipes

    Shared aroma: (z)-4-heptenal (biscuit, cream).

  2. Flour + buttertop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together124,287 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  3. Flour + milktop 14% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together78,219 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  4. Pepper + flourtop 19% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together50,459 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

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

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

Flour and butter barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 124,287 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 body of the dish, becoming tender as it simmers slowly in the pot.
All-purpose flour
Forms the dough structure that holds the crust pieces together over the simmering meat.
Butter
Adds fat for richness and a tender texture in the dough.
Milk
Moistens the flour so it forms a soft, workable dough.
Baking soda
Helps the summer dough rise and lighten, since it is used only optionally in that season.

The step that matters

Skim and remove the scum before boiling hard. Scum is coagulated protein and impurities that rise as the meat heats. Removing it keeps the broth clear and clean-tasting before the pot is boiled hard.

“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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