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Veal and Ham Pie

A savory pie filled with veal, ham, mushrooms, and eggs, topped with pastry.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 12 ingredients
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Why it works: Mushroom and butter are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 7% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 12,525 recipes. Both carry trans-2-decenal, which smells waxy, orange. The science ↓

Veal and Ham Pie

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Cut the veal and ham into convenient pieces.

  2. Prepare a short or puff pastry and line a pie dish with it.

  3. Sweat the mushrooms and parsley in butter with a little flour in a clean saucepan.

  4. Add the stock and ketchup, then bring the mixture to a boil.

  5. Set the mixture aside.

Fill and bake

  1. Layer the veal and ham alternately in the pie dish.

  2. Finish the layering with ham mixed with the eggs.

  3. If desired, add grated lemon peel or other optional ingredients.

  4. Strain all but ⅓ cup of the gravy through the hole at the top of the pie.

  5. Cover the hole with a decorative piece of pastry.

  6. Bake.

Finish and serve

  1. Remove the top ornament.

  2. Heat the remaining gravy.

  3. Strain the gravy in.

  4. Cover the hole again.

  5. Serve.

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. Mushroom + buttertop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together12,525 recipes

    Shared aroma: trans-2-decenal (waxy, orange).

  2. Mushroom + parsleytop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together6,132 recipes

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

  3. Butter + flourtop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together124,287 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  4. Parsley + flourtop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together16,675 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  5. Flour + ketchuptop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,435 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

Butter and flour 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 meat body, which firms as it cooks and holds the filling together.
Ham
Adds savoury, salty flavour that stands out against the mild veal.
Eggs
Set when heated, firming the filling so it slices cleanly.
Stock
Forms the gravy base, adding moisture and savoury depth to the filling.
Flour
Thickens the butter and mushroom mixture, helping the gravy become smooth and cohesive.
Mushrooms
Add earthy flavour and moisture to the gravy.

The step that matters

Straining the gravy through the top hole. Gravy must be poured in gently and at the right stage so the pie stays moist without becoming soggy or leaking. Pouring too much before baking can dilute the filling, while adding it too cold can leave the interior underheated and the pastry underside wet.

Swap the parsley

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (veal, ham, mushroom, butter, flour, ketchup, egg):

  1. Capersfits about as well
  2. Parsleythe original
  3. Nutmegfits about as well
  4. Thymefits about as well

Fit is the average pairing score against veal, ham, mushroom, butter, flour, ketchup, egg. 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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